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Elizabeth High School's 5,300 students will be divided into six schools in September to alleviate overcrowding in the biggest school in New Jersey.

The transformation is intended to boost test scores and guide students onto career paths, district officials said.

TONY KURDZUK/THE STAR-LEDGERElizabeth High School sophomores fill all the desks in a drivers education class this afternoon. The largest high school in New Jersey, Elizabeth is formally dividing into a handful of separate schools to help deal with overcrowding issues.

Pope John II School in Clifton will close at the end of the academic year because of declining enrollment and financial problems, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson said today.

The 17-year-old school has an enrollment of 588, down from 750 in 2006, when it took in students from two Paterson schools that had closed.

Just one in three low-income students eligible for free or reduced-price breakfasts got those meals in Philadelphia schools during the 2006-07 school year, according to a report in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The report said the data ranked the Philadelphia schools in the lower third of the 19 districts studied around the nation, said the report by the Food Research and Action Center, a national nonprofit organization based in Washington. Beginning in September of this school year, the district started offering free breakfasts to all students in all schools in an effort to increase participation.

On Inauguration Day, 13-year-old Damon McCasker will rise early in his Irvington apartment, don his school uniform and head off for St. Philips Academy in Newark, where he will be sworn in as the private school's student government president.

Across the city, and in cities all over America, other students will commemorate the historic swearing in of Barack Obama on Tuesday in other significant ways.

Patti Sapone/The Star-LedgerArmondo Lopez, 14, and 8th grade student at Marquis de Lafayette (Public School 6) in Elizabeth helps hang a timeline of President-Elect Barack Obama. The timeline was prepared by the students in his 8th grade class.

Raymond Hyman, superintendent of the Essex Fells school district, was arraigned today on charges he pilfered more than $22,000 in tuition-reimbursement funds to pursue a doctorate degree he never completed.

The 46-year-old Hyman, who was suspended from his post last fall and drew a $140,721 base salary as superintendent/principal of the one-school K-6 district, surrendered this morning at the Essex County Prosecutor's Office, said Paul Loriquet, spokesman for Prosecutor Paula Dow.

Plainfield High School was locked down for a half-hour this morning after police found a loaded .380-caliber handgun inside the backpack of a 15-year-old male student, authorities said.

The teen, along with two other 17-year-old male students, have been arrested and taken into custody. Police believe the three are members of the Bloods gang and were planning an after-school confrontation with a rival gang in Plainfield, Public Safety Director Martin Hellwig said.

In Orange schools, a district working to transform its image, officials and students today dealt with the aftermath of a shooting of a 15-year-old basketball player.

Two other 16-year-olds were also shot in the incident Wednesday, but police would not say where they lived.

Princeton University, one of the wealthiest schools in the country, announced today it will cut costs, cap raises and limit new hires to offset huge investment losses caused by the tanking economy.

In a letter to students, faculty and staff, Princeton President Shirley M. Tilghman said university officials will seek to cut $50 million in spending for the 2009-10 academic year because of a rapidly-shrinking endowment.

Star-Ledger file photoPrinceton University President Shirley Tilghman

The New Jersey Schools Development Authority, the state agency responsible for school construction, is the beneficiary of a depressed construction market that will save the agency -- and the taxpayers who fund it -- almost $9 million to build two new schools in southern New Jersey.

A total of 18 bids were received for the two schools, with five firms submitting bids for both. James Poole, the SDA's senior director for procurement and contract services, said the dozen bidders on one school was "unprecedented" for a project of that magnitude in his experience with the authority and its predecessor, the Schools Construction Corp.

Star-Ledger Photo/David GardKris Kolluri, CEO of the Schools Development Authority, talks about renovation plans for Camden High in a file photo from February 2007. Kolluri is standing in front of the high school.

New Jersey ranks fifth in the nation in terms of how it treats students learning English, says a report card issued yesterday by the Education Week trade journal, according to a report in The Jersey Journal.

The report said the percent of English language learners making progress was 34.2 percent, nearly the same as the national average of 34.4 percent, according to the "Quality Counts" report. Plus, the percent of students in the Garden State not making progress was 9.9 percent, significantly less than the national rate of 25.2 percent, according to the report.

Rutgers University expects more than 175 employers and 2,000 students and recent graduates to show up to its job fair today.

New Jersey companies continue to scour university job fairs for potential recruits -- cheaper ones. That's because young employers earn less, so many companies continue to hire them even as they trim more costly veteran workers.

Newly-sworn Newark Police Officer Genaro Ortiz knew first hand from his father, a veteran detective on the force, what it takes to want the job.

"I grew up all those years watching him. I guess his inspiration rubbed off on me," said the 23-year-old Ortiz, who graduated in the city's 114th police recruit class today.

SARAH SIMONIS/FOR THE STAR-LEDGERMyesha Caraballo, left, sits with Newark Police Department's 114th recruit class during their graduation ceremony today in Newark. Fifty-eight recruits were sworn in as police officers.

Wildwood High School - the smallest high school in New Jersey - may be closed, according to a report in the Philadelphia Daily News

The report said Wildwood Mayor Ernest Troiano Jr. suggested the school district come up with an "exit strategy" for closing the high school so the city can maintain an even keel amid the rising tide of taxes. The schools in this Cape May County resort are about the only things that don't hibernate for the winter.

Princeton Review Inc., the test preparation company, said today that it will sell its K-12 Services unit to a CORE Projects & Technologies Ltd. subsidiary for $9.5 million in cash.

Princeton Review, which is also an educational support services provider, said in November that it planned to sell the division because it did not fit as well with some of its other services.

The deal also includes a payment for working capital which is due six months after the transaction's closing.

Educational technology company CORE Projects and Technologies has offices in Atlanta, New Jersey, San Francisco and overseas.

Students at Ramapo College are studying the Cold War in an innovative way.

A course on the subject is being taught simultaneously at the Mahwah campus and in Russia, with American and Russian students communicating real-time via videoconferencing.

Topics are examined from both Russian and American perspectives, and discussions are conducted in English about post World War II relations between the two countries.

Long before Al Gore started teaching about global warming, Ramapo College students were planting organic gardens, recycling bottles and studying solar and wind power and other alternative energies.

A lot has changed since Ramapo started to go green 30 years ago, but not its commitment to the environmental movement. It plans to open New Jersey's first on-campus sustainability education center this spring to showcase the most technologically advanced green building designs.

Ramapo isn't alone in rediscovering the green movement that in the 1970s swept across American college campuses. Administrations in New Jersey and elsewhere are making big changes to conserve energy and catch the coming wave of new industries and careers that aim to capture solar, wind and other new green technologies.

Jerry McCrea/The Star-LedgerDr. Michael Edelstein, a Ramapo professor who has championed green practices since it was popular in the 1970s, talks about the new Sharp Sustainability Center under construction at Ramapo. He is seen with his live worm mulching device in his office at Ramapo College in Mahwah.

The president of a sports equipment refurbishing company which contracts with schools throughout New Jersey admitted today to submitting phony quotes and giving gifts to purchasing agents in return for business.

David Drill, 60, of Easton, Pa., pleaded guilty to a count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud before U.S. District Judge Dickinson Debevoise in Newark. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced. No sentencing date was set.

Rutgers University is near the top of a survey that ranks colleges on their return on investment.

The survey in the January issue of SmartMoney magazine looks at what graduates earned three and 15 years after leaving school, then compared it to what they paid in tuition.

Rutgers ranked sixth, ahead of Ivy League schools like Princeton and Harvard.

More than 100 New Jersey public schools, mostly in urban districts, are facing requirements to "restructure" after missing federal targets for student achievement for at least six straight years, the state announced Friday.

From elementary through high schools, the 106 schools under the most severe sanctions of the federal No Child Left Behind act -- demanding deep staffing or organizational changes -- is a big jump from last year's total, when it was half that number.

Star-Ledger fileState Education Commissioner Lucille Davy speaks during a hearing in Trenton earlier this year.

Morris Knolls High School in Denville and Morris Hills High School in Rockaway, both in Morris County, will be closed Friday because of expected inclement weather, according to the schools' website.

For Abigail Steinbach, a seventh-grader at Ridgedale Middle School in Florham Park, the baked ziti from Romanelli's is her favorite, hands-down.

Her twin, Emily, prefers the Madison restaurant's pasta penne.

For 12-year-old Billy Baumgartner, a seventh-grade football player, it's the turkey and mashed potatoes -- delivered on Fridays from Mitola's Deli in East Hanover.

Ask most kids in the Florham Park school district what they like to have for lunch, and the answer isn't just pizza -- although they do like the pizza they get, delivered from Main Street Subs in Madison.

Christopher Barth/For The Star-LedgerFlorham Park Middle PTA members Josephine DeFina, left, and Carole Baumgart, right, finish handing out hot food to a lunch period.

Patti Sapone/The Star-LedgerMichael Torney, 21, of Randolph, in a file photo from 2007.

The last defendant in a fatal hazing at Rider University was sentenced to three years' probation yesterday, according to The Times of Trenton.

Michael Torney, 22, of Randolph had pleaded guilty to hazing, a disorderly persons charge, in the March 2007 incident in which freshman Gary DeVercelly Jr. died. A more serious charge of aggravated hazing was dismissed in return for his guilty plea.

DeVercelly, 18, died after drinking nearly two-thirds of a bottle of vodka during an initiation ritual of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity. Torney had been president of the now-defunct fraternity.

Two other fraternity brothers, Dominic Olsen, 22, the pledge master, and Adriano DiDonato, 23, were allowed into pretrial intervention, a program for first-time offenders that can lead to their criminal records being expunged.

The Madison school board tonight decided to end further negotiations on the sale of the Green Village Road School after one bidder's financing fell through and another balked at a $3.5 million asking price.

A tentative vote had been set for Dec. 9, but it was postponed while a swirl of developments took place.

The state agency overseeing more than $1 billion in college financial aid will no longer allow students to defer payments until after graduation -- a move that could affect thousands of students at a time when it is getting increasingly difficult to secure loans elsewhere.

Changes to the NJ Class loans -- something of a safety net for families who cannot borrow enough through other federal and state loan and grant programs to cover the cost of school -- comes amid a growing crisis in the student loan industry.

In an unprecedented move to help their school district weather the economic downturn, 27 Morris County administrators have volunteered to accept cuts in their annual pay raises for the coming school year.

Chathams School District administrators, principals, assistant principals and supervisors announced this week they are settling on a 2 percent raise -- compared with the up to 6 percent raise guaranteed in their contracts -- for the 2009-10 school year. The move could help the six-school K-12th grade school district save $70,000 in its toughest budgetary year yet, officials estimate.

Parsippany's two Catholic elementary schools will merge into one school called "All Saints Academy" beginning in September. The school will be housed at the current St. Peter the Apostle building on Baldwin Road, the Diocese of Paterson said today.

"The mission of All Saints Academy is to foster spiritual and academic growth within our students in a Christ-centered environment through the highest quality Catholic education," John Eriksen, superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Paterson, said in a letter that was read to parents, guardians and parishioners at meetings held at both schools Monday evening.

Fewer New Jersey students will qualify for merit-based college scholarships under limits designed to preserve the program and save the state money.

Revisions to NJ STARS and STARS II will take effect next year if Gov. Jon S. Corzine signs the measure as expected. The Assembly and Senate approved the bill today.

The proposal tightens eligibility standards and excludes families earning more than $250,000 from eligibility.Corzine sought to limit participation to families earning less than $100,000.

State legislators have introduced at least three bills since January that would allow school districts to raise money by selling ads on the sides of the buses they rent or own, according to a report in the Press of Atlantic City.

The report said Assemblyman Scott Rudder, R-Burlington, a sponsor of one of the bills, said districts approached him about the idea. He said it is a way for schools to raise cash without having to dip deeper into taxpayers' pockets.

Jennifer Brown/The Star-LedgerGov. Corzine listens to Cliff Janey speak after it was announced he is Newark's next superintendent at Central High School in June.

That is just the beginning of the transformation of Newark Schools, said Janey, who was hired this summer by Gov. Jon Corzine to take over the state's largest school district.

"We're spending some time stepping back to see how better we can do the work so we don't get in each other's way," he said, explaining this process.

Faced with spending up to eight years at Mountainview Youth Correctional Facility in Annandale on drug and robbery charges, William Blaine -- for the first time in his 21 years -- had a moment of forced stillness to reflect on his future.

Blaine received a high school equivalency degree, but when he wanted to take the next step and enroll in college and computer classes, he was told the state no longer offered those courses.

"Getting my GED made me feel so good. If there were more classes to take, I would have kept pushing," said Blaine, now 36, who was released in two years. "They called it a correctional facility but there was no correcting going on."

Louisa Tuck, the Vineland school cafeteria and playground aide whose former career as an adult entertainer attracted scrutiny last month, has offered her resignation to the Board of Education, according to a report in the Daily Journal.

The report said in a one-sentence letter to MaryAnn Greenfield, Vineland Public Schools' executive director of personnel, Tuck said she is "resigning in good standing" from her position at D'Ippolito Elementary School.

Three men are under arrest for separate assaults on two Rowan University students in November. Authorities say 23-year-old Lance Husser, 20-year-old Landis Husser and 23-year-old Ernest Watson Jr., all of Woodstown, were arrested Wednesday.

The students were assaulted and robbed near the university's Glassboro campus shortly before 1 a.m. on Nov. 11. The armed assailants took their wallets and cell phones. The students were not seriously injured.

Rowan officials said they do not believe the three suspects have any connection to the fatal beating of a Rowan student last year. Rowan sophomore Donnie Farrell of Boonton was attacked and killed by a group of men during a robbery.

A day after he was fired in the aftermath of revelations of unchecked spending and secret deals at Rutgers University, athletic director Bob Mulcahy said today he had no idea he was going to be dismissed by school president Richard L. McCormick and that he has no intention of fighting the decision.

"The president has the power to hire and fire, so he has chosen to fire me," Mulcahy said.

Previous coverage from The Star-Ledger

Noah K. Murray/The Star-LedgerRutgers University Athletic Director Robert E. Mulcahy, talks about being fired.

A Montclair State University sophomore has been charged with setting a string of campus fires, typically in trash cans, that forced the cancellation of classes and spread alarm across the campus.

Paul M. Cell, MSU's chief of police, said today that Steven Romano, a 19-year-old business major from Park Ridge, Bergen County, has been charged with 13 counts of aggravated arson and is being held on $200,000 bail.

Richard Stockton College of New Jersey is cutting summer tuition by 10 percent to encourage enrollment.

The college in Galloway Township also will reduce summer housing costs by 20 percent. The reductions won't apply to the fall 2009 semester.

Students will save $21.40 per credit, or nearly $86 for a typical four-credit course load.

Robert E. Mulcahy, the athletic director at Rutgers University for the past decade, was fired Wednesday amid revelations of unchecked spending and secret deals.

The firing comes three weeks after a special review committee issued a sharp rebuke to Rutgers for allowing the athletics department to operate without oversight -- answerable to no one -- in the drive to bring big-time college football to the state university.

Amanda Brown/The Star-LedgerRobert Mulcahy, director of Athletics at Rutgers, leads a tour of the club seating and club lounge area at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway in July.

-- Schiano: Mulcahy is a man of "integrity and loyalty"

-- Politi: Mulcahy's legacy is a mixed bag

-- Mulcahy will be remembered at Rutgers for hiring Schiano

-- You Make the Call: Who should be the next athletic director at Rutgers?

-- Complete coverage from The Star-Ledger

Princeton University has agreed to pay $90 million to the heirs of a large benefactor, ending a six-year historic battle over donor intent that mesmerized the philanthropic community and influenced the way it does business.

The Ivy League institution announced today that it will dissolve the endowment at the heart of the dispute, known as the Robertson Foundation. The university, however, will keep control of the assets -- valued at between $700 and $900 million --to continue to support the university's graduate program at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Police in Sparta are seeking information about who may have taken a tree from Pope John XXIII Regional High School that was planted in memory of a deceased parent.

The 4-foot pine tree was located in front of the rectory building across from the school on Route 517, called Andover Road in that area. The tree was planted two years ago in memory of Donna Moore, who died of an illness, police said.

Princeton University settled a six-year high-profile lawsuit with the descendants of one of its largest donors, agreeing to pay millions in legal fees and $50 million to a new foundation in exchange for retaining control of an endowment once-valued at about $900 million.

One of the largest legal battles on donor intent in the country, the case involved the legacy of the late Charles and Marie Robertson of the A&P supermarket fortune, who in 1961 granted Princeton $35 million to train graduate students at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs to enter government service.

Patti Sapone/The Star-LedgerRobert Halligan, second from left (red tie) and his cousin William Robertson, (plaid jacket) right, listen during proceedings in court in November 2006.

The Freehold Regional High School District cut the salaries of two more staffers because they had received doctoral degrees from an unaccredited colleges, according to a report in the Asbury Park Press.

The report said English teacher Cheryl A. Lanza of Freehold and teacher consultant Lorraine Taddei-Graef of Lacey work at Freehold Township High School and had both received pay raises upon obtaining doctoral degrees from Breyer State University, the same school that issued degrees to Superintendent H. James Wasser, former Assistant Superintendent Frank J. Tanzini and current Assistant Superintendent Donna Evangelista.

One Middlesex County school district got what it wanted and the other didn't as residents turned out today to vote on referendums in Sayreville and Edison.

Residents in Sayreville approved a $2.2 million referendum --1,626 to 1,435 votes -- so work that started two years ago at the high school can be completed.

In a low-turnout election today, Hardyston voters defeated their school district's $1.7 million referendum on fixing the leaky roof of a 5-year-old middle school.

The ballot proposal was rejected by a 298-210 vote, or 59 percent against it and 41 percent in favor of it, according to unofficial results tabulated tonight by the Sussex County Board of Elections in Newton. Polls closed at 9 p.m.

"We tried," said a disappointed Anthony Norod, interim chief school administrator and middle school principal.

Two Catholic schools in Elizabeth with declining enrollment will close at year's end and merge with another one in the city, the Newark Archdiocese said today.

The consolidation is necessary because of declining enrollments, said James Goodness, a spokesman for Newark Archbishop John J. Myers. Blessed Sacrament, a kindergarten through eighth-grade school with 110 students this year, and St. Anthony of Padua, which has 93 students, will merge with St. Mary of the Assumption, which has 86 students.

The consolidated school will have a new name and will operate on the St. Mary's site on South Broad Street. The merger will reduce the number of Catholic grade schools in Elizabeth from five to three.

A judge dismissed a lawsuit seeking to block New Jersey from borrowing $3.9 billion for school construction.

Former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan argued voter approval was needed under the constitution for the state to go deeper in debt. The state Supreme Court has ordered new schools be built in the poorest districts.

Lonegan is seeking the Republican nomination for governor, but the lawsuit was filed in July. His lawyer plans to appeal Monday's ruling.

NEW YORK -- Research into potentially life-saving medical advances won both the individual and team prizes of $100,000 each today at the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology.

Prizes of $10,000 to $50,000 were presented to five other high school students, including Hayden C. Metsky, of Millburn, and five teams of two students at an awards ceremony at New York University.

Jim Pathe/The Star-LedgerHayden Metsky, a senior at Millburn High School, won $10,000 in the 2008 Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology.

His enemies -- some of them his own professors -- call him a dictator. Some of his students call him a tyrant. Even his friends agree he's no wallflower, not the type of university president who massages egos or minces words.

After more than five years at the helm of Kean University, even president Dawood Farahi admits he can be unpopular. But New Jersey's most controversial college president is undeterred. He has a vision for the university, even if his ideas are disagreeable to some.

"I understand the concerns of critics, that it's a hard thing to change," Farahi said. "But change we must."

Patti Sapone/The Star-LedgerKean University President Dawood Farahi on the school's campus in Union Township

A 17-year-old Brick youth was arrested Thursday and charged with pointing a gun at a teacher outside Colts Neck High School, according to a report in the Asbury Park Press.

The report said the teacher had tried to stop the teen from speeding in the school's parking area when the incident occurred, Detective Sgt. Joseph Whitehead said. The incident forced a lockdown at the school until the youth was apprehended after a traffic stop on Route 537 at 10:17 a.m., Whitehead said.

Red Bank Primary school principal Richard Cohen Thursday grabbed a knife from a man attacking a woman minutes after the school day started, according to a report in the Asbury Park Press.

The report said the school guidance counselor grabbed the man -- identified by authorities as Jorge Vargas Mancilla -- and held him until police arrived. The victim, Vargas Mancilla's 21-year-old estranged girlfriend, was rushed to Riverview Medical Center, where she was reported in stable condition hours after the attack.

Randolph Township parents recently received a small, gold-colored booklet in their mailboxes -- a district directory of several hundred parents who have pledged to allow no underage drinking or drugs at parties, and to supervise their children's social events.

The mailing, issued for the first time in the district since 1999, follows an incident earlier this year in which more than 100 Randolph High School seniors were arrested for illegal underage drinking at a post-prom party in Vermont.

The Governor's Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse distributes more than $10 million annually in grants statewide without proper review of how the money is used, according to an audit released today by the Office of the State Comptroller.

The audit found that dollars intended for drug and alcohol prevention and education have been used to finance petting zoos, community fairs and, in one instance, a "rent expense."

Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-LedgerComptroller Matthew Boxer in his Trenton office overlooking the city and the Delaware River in January.

Michael Chertoff is speaking today at Kean University.

The U.S. Homeland Security chief is scheduled to talk about the nation's homeland security and preparedness and the challenges facing President-elect Barack Obama.

Classes in one building at Montclair State University were canceled tonight after officials discovered fires in "multiple" trash cans, officials said.

Classes will resume Thursday morning as scheduled, they added.

The seven-story building, University Hall, was evacuated shortly after campus police received a call about 6:30 p.m., university spokeswoman Minne Ho said.

Sean Patch, a a high school algebra teacher who works in Manhattan, has begun commuting to work from Weehawken by kayak to save money, according to a report on WCBS880.com.

The report said Patch bought a kayak for $850 and no longer has to pay for the ferry $7.75 each way. In addition to the savings, Patch said, "It's really peaceful."

A former Camden elementary school principal pleaded guilty Tuesday to taking part in a scheme to bill the district for more than $25,000 in extra wages for meetings that never took place, according to a report in the Philadelphia Inqurier.

The report said Juanita Worthy, 61, of Evesham, admitted to third-degree attempted theft by deception, a felony, before Superior Court Judge Stephen M. Holden. The state has indicated that it will recommend probation when Worthy is sentenced on Feb. 6. She previously resigned from the district and will be barred from public employment in New Jersey.

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by New Jersey's school administrators that sought to block new state limits on their employment contracts, ruling the regulations are in the state's "perfectly legitimate" interests.

But the decision by U.S. District Judge Joel Pisano appeared to leave at least some of the limits open to challenge in state court, and a lawyer representing administrators said a challenge would likely be filed within the week.

Officials of New Jersey's school construction program today announced plans to step up the pace of work on at least six new schools next year, including a long-delayed Phillipsburg High School project, through a streamlined building process.

"What we're trying to do is work essentially toward meeting the governor's mandate to accelerate these projects," said Kris Kolluri, the former Department of Transportation Commissioner who announced the streamlined building program during his first meeting as chief executive officer of the state Schools Development Authority.

Matt Rainey/The Star-LedgerThe road leading from Belvidere Rd. to the site of the yet to be built Phillipsburg High School, shown in July.

Students in Drew University professor Kesha Moore's Thursday afternoon class must follow an unusual list of requirements: no weapons, sharp objects, cigarettes, cell phones, condoms, candy or cosmetics.

When you're holding class in a women's prison, a few rules must be enforced.

Moore's sociology class, held at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Hunterdon County, is a first in New Jersey. It is part of the national Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program, which brings students and prisoners together in 35 states to explore the justice system.

Matt Rainey/The Star-LedgerDrew University students and inmates at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility share a laugh after a group presentation in Kesha Moore's sociology class, which is part of the national Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program.

New Jersey Transportation Commissioner Kris Kolluri today leaves his post to start overseeing the state's Schools Development Authority, according to a report in the Asbury Park Press.

The report said he leaves a legacy of tackling the growing list of deteriorating roads and bridges and having been the point man to help the governor sell his plan to "monetize" the state's toll roads and the latest toll increase. Experts lauded Kolluri for beating the drum to get the state's aging bridges and highways fixed, for making mass transit investments and starting pedestrian safety projects by giving towns grants to build sidewalks to schools.

Rutgers University is using a $633,885 grant from the National Science
Foundation to start a five-year program to "promote the participation and advancement" of women in science, engineering and mathematics, according to a report in the Asbury Park Press

The report said Joan Bennett, a university associate vice president in charge of the Office for the Promotion of Women in Science, Engineering and Mathematics, and principal investigator for the NSF-funded project, said "Rutgers has one of the finest women's studies programs in the world."
On the other hand, she told the newspaper, "the math department has 62 faculty members, and two are female. Half the students are female. Something's wrong with that."

A paperwork snafu proves costly for the Camden school district.

It means the district must return nearly $400,000 in unspent federal aid that it wanted to roll over from the 2004-2005 school year to the following year.

District spokesman Bart Leff told The Philadelphia Inquirer that such rollover requests are routinely made, but this one apparently "either wasn't made or it was made late."

For the eighth year, the staff and students of the Robert N. Wilentz School in Perth Amboy observed Thanksgiving by portraying the Puritans landing on American shores. A traditional turkey dinner followed the festivities.

A year ago, Luigi Marciante was heartbroken. He lived through the worst nightmare of any father, attending the burial of his youngest son, 25-year-old Luigi Marciante Jr., killed in Iraq.

But as he stood behind a podium today addressing the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Spotswood, he could do nothing but give thanks: Joseph Cary, a neighbor of some close family friends, was so touched by Marciante's story he decided to fund a scholarship in Marciante's name with the church.

Patti Sapone/The Star-LedgerA plaque honoring US Army Corporal Luigi Marciante, Jr. is seen at left, while Msgr. Joseph Curry, right, prays during a special Thanksgiving Celebration today honoring US Army Corporal Luigi Marciante, Jr. killed in Iraq.

Liberty Science Center is asking Jersey City for $2.5 million to keep its doors open, according to a report in the Jersey Journal.

The report said City Council is expected to pass a resolution tonight to authorize a loan application to the state Urban Enterprise Zone Authority. The $2.5 million is about 10 percent of its annual operating budget, according to LSC President Emlyn Koster.

APLiberty Science Center

Princeton University will cut $300 million from its 10-year capital plan's original commitments in response to the recent economic downturn, according to a report in the Daily Princetonian.

The report said no projects will be eliminated from the long-term building plan, some will be shifted beyond the plan's 2016 end date. The deferred projects include a storage facility for the Princeton University Art Museum, an art-museum satellite building slated to be part of the Arts and Transit Neighborhood, a renovation of Green Hall, the development of more faculty and staff apartments.

WASHINGTON -- Three 2008 Nobel laureates from the United States, two with ties to new Jersey, lined up with President George W. Bush today for an Oval Office photograph to mark their achievements.

Bush visited with Martin Chalfie of New York and Livingston High School graduate Roger Tsien, who now lives in La Jolla, Calif., two of three U.S.-based scientists who won a Nobel Prize in chemistry for turning a glowing green protein from jellyfish into a revolutionary way to watch the tiniest details of life within cells and living creatures. Former Princeton University researcher Osamu Shimomura, a Japanese citizen who works in the United States, shared the prize.

The third laureate at the White House was Paul Krugman, a Princeton University professor who won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work on international trade patterns. Krugman, a frequent critic of the Bush administration who opposed the recent $700 billion financial bailout, is a New York Times columnist.

AP Photo/Gerald HerbertPresident George W. Bush poses for a photo with Nobel Prize winners in the Oval Office of the White House today in Washington.From left are, Dr. Paul Krugman, a professor of economics at Princeton University, the president; Dr. Martin Chalfie of New York for chemistry; and Dr. Roger Tsien, a Livingston High School graduate who now lives in La Jolla, Calif. for chemistry.

PHILADELPHIA -- Two New Jersey students and three at Princeton University were among 32 U.S. winners today of Rhodes scholarships.

Joshua A. Lospinoso of Sparta, who attends the United States Military Academy, Myron L. Rolle of Galloway, a student at Florida State University who attended The Hun School in Princeton, and Princeton students Scott M. Moore of Louisville, Ky., Timothy A. Nunan of Palos Verdes, Calif., and Stephen Hammer of Carrollton, Texas, were selected to enter England's Oxford University next October.

Mitsu Yasukawa/The Star-LedgerDell High School 11th-grader Courtney Stroever looks at photos of the 9/11 attacks during class on Sept. 9 in Oradell.

The teachers around the paper-strewn table knew it was the diciest subject of the day, as they began work on a curriculum for teaching about the events of 9/11 and how they affected the nation and world.

What are the causes of terrorism and how is it even defined?

Local school officials always grumble about top-down proposals when the state says their districts should merge to save money.

But these days, a new frustration has been added to the mix: a sour economy.

That makes the state less likely to propose financial incentives for districts to regionalize, a state official told more than 200 unhappy local school officials yesterday, at a panel sponsored by the New Jersey School Boards Association.

On a day when the Dow plunged more than 440 points, with analysts predicting the worst is yet to come, former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker insisted time is the only solution in a crisis that has become as much a "psychological" problem as it is real.

Volcker, who served as Fed chairman from 1979 to 1987 and is now a top economic advisor to President-elect Barack Obama, told nearly 50 students and faculty members collected in a lecture hall Drew University in Madison today that, eventually, this crisis shall pass.

Jim Pathe/The Star-LedgerPaul Volcker, left, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, speaks at Drew University in former governor Brendan Byrne's "Politics and the Media" class. Former governor and former Drew president Tom Kean, right, joined Volcker as a guest speaker.

A student at North Hunterdon High School faces multiple charges after she and two classmates attacked a fourth teen in a dispute over a boy, according to police.

Authorities said the three attackers assaulted the victim in a school locker room around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.

The 16-year-old charged in the beating allegedly threatened to stab the victim with a nail file, and then tried to discard the weapon, Lt. Ryan Melsky, a police spokesman.

A Sussex County Community College professor is suing the school, claiming she was sexually harassed by a superior who retaliated against her when she rejected his advances, and that she was improperly denied a promotion.

The professor, Darla Silverman, is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, fees and costs from the college. The civil suit, made public today in Superior Court in Newton, names as defendants the college, its president, Constance Mierendorf, vice president Harry Damato and associate professor of psychology Richard Linden.

Kathleen Scott, a spokeswoman for the college, declined comment on the lawsuit.

Annette Gordon-Reed

Annette Gordon-Reed, a professor of history at Rutgers-Newark, has won the 2008 National Book Award for Non-fiction for her work "The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family."

An interview with the author.

Gordon-Read is the first African American woman to win the nonfiction award.

Thirty minutes before the final moves were made, the outcome was already certain.

"It's over," whispered convicted killer Carl Gooding, grinning as he looked confidently over the remaining pieces on the chess board.

The 41-year-old prison inmate had a rook, a knight and six well-placed pawns. Atanas Petkov, 19, a Princeton University economics major from Bulgaria, was struggling to regain his posture with one rook and a somewhat bunched and useless assembly of six pawns.

John O'Boyle/The Star-LedgerPrinceton University student Sudeep Doshi (only hand in photo) makes a move during a chess match with inmate Amir Winn at the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton.

A proposal to make fees that support the Rutgers University's student newspaper optional for students will not go forward, according to a report in the Record.

The report said the plan to allow students to opt out of a $9.75 per-semester fee for the Daily Targum was to be considered Friday during a meeting of the University Senate, but it will be removed from a list of recommendations. Targum supporters organized an e-mail campaign and set up a page on Facebook.com, a social networking website, to voice their opposition.

The Rutgers athletic department was allowed to become a virtually independent operation within the school - bending rules, answering to no one and spending freely.

Those findings were contained in a much anticipated report released late Wednesday by the university. The 35-page internal review said the athletic department veered out of control because Rutgers president Richard L. McCormick and the school's board of governors failed to monitor Athletic Director Robert E. Mulcahy in the drive to bring athletic success to Rutgers.

The overall conclusion from a panel of business leaders, judges, lawyers and Rutgers officials was that the state university was ill-prepared to handle its push into big-time football.

"The university operated with inadequate internal controls, insufficient inter-departmental...communications, an uninformed board on some specific important issues and limited presidential leadership," the report said.

The report found no wrongdoing on Mulcahy's part.

Chris Faytok/The Star-LedgerRutgers Athletic Director Robert E. Mulcahy.