Free Republic

With two neighboring states having recently approved massive offshore wind farm projects, the Corzine administration is considering expanding New Jersey's future reliance on wind power as a clean source of energy. The state's draft energy master plan currently calls for developing 1,000 megawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2020 -- enough to power nearly 1 million homes -- but that target is expected to double and possibly even triple when the administration finalizes the plan later this month, according to three people who have been briefed on the administration's thinking. A spokesman for the Corzine administration declined to comment. Wind...

After a bitter five-year legal fight, the city of Long Branch has suggested it will abandon its plan to seize more than a dozen modest homes to make way for an ambitious oceanfront development project. Mayor Adam Schneider, who has long contended the small neighborhood meets the "blighted" designation necessary for the use of eminent domain, said today he now wants to settle with the homeowners rather than fight them in court for several more years. "The goal is to not use eminent domain," Schneider said. "I want this case settled. It's not going to settle if we use eminent...

With a tremendous splash and a profound thud, 30 old subway cars were dropped into the ocean off the coast of Cape May this morning, enlarging the nation's most extensive artificial reef system. State officials say the 18-ton cars -- stripped of their windows, wheels, axles and flooring -- will soon become home to a variety of ocean species. "They provide a very good habitat for marine life," said Hugh Carberry, the state Department of Environmental Protection's reef coordinator.Workers dump New York City subway cars into the ocean off of Cape May on Monday. After a five year moratorium, New...

Three people drowned in two separate incidents in the waters off Atlantic City and Wildwood Saturday, after getting pulled by strong rip currents from the effects of Hurricane Bertha, officials said. Bertha is now a tropical storm in the Atlantic Ocean approaching Bermuda. But meteorologists at the National Weather Service in Mount Holly said the rip currents are expected to remain a danger into the early part of this week. This morning, the Coast Guard shifted its search effort for a missing Wildwood swimmer from a rescue mission to a recovery operation. The swimmer was identified as 28-year-old Juan Moore...

The governor never tires of telling us that he grew up on a farm. Gee, who'da thunk it? Well, me for one. Over the course of these "town meetings" on his multibillion-dollar toll-and- spend scheme, our governor has undergone a personality change. The first few sessions featured docile crowds that were willing to sit back and absorb the wisdom of a Wall Street whiz who spoke with great authority on matters of high finance. But once the crowds wised up, Gov. Jon Corzine started to look like the bumbler he was when he first entered politics eight years ago. The...

For more than a century, oysters were so plentiful in the waters off New Jersey they were hawked on street corners the same way pretzels or hot dogs are today. But the industry fell on hard times when overharvesting and two strains of disease nearly wiped out the population in the 1960s and again in the 1990s. The steep decline took with it whole communities that depended on the oyster for survival. In recent years, Rutgers University scientists working with disease-resistant oysters and employing new technology have nursed the industry back to health and brought it to the brink of...

TOMS RIVER (1010 WINS) -- A fiery streak across the sky got the attention of the Coast Guard Saturday night, after the reported fireball crashed into the waters off the Jersey Shore. Concerned calls started coming in from South Carolina to Long Island about 9 p.m. Coast Guard boats were searching near the site of the reported impact, off Normandy Beach in Toms River, about 10 miles off shore. No debris has been found in the water. The Toms River Fire Department says it also got some calls and there were at least 20 people on the beach with the...

The lighthouses along New Jersey's shore are so much more than photographs on souvenir postcards, subjects for paintings and models for light-catchers in kitchen windows. Although often overshadowed at vacation time by beaches, sun and seashells, they have stories to tell to all who are willing to listen.  Exploring the state's lighthouses is like breezing into history at full sail. "The lighthouses represent the maritime history of the nation, when wooden ships were sailed by iron men," says Brett Franks, spokesman for the 1,000-member New Jersey Lighthouse Society.Franks, a volunteer at the Absecon Lighthouse in Atlantic City, says, "We tell...

On a small island in Barnegat Bay, hundreds of birds that didn't exist in New Jersey 30 years ago bask in the summer sun. Suddenly, they all take flight, oddly elegant and vaguely prehistoric, with 6-foot wing spans and the most recognizable bills in the animal kingdom. They are brown pelicans, described by naturalist John James Audubon as one of America's "most interesting birds." They are also one of the Jersey shore's newest residents, joining other top-of -the-food-chain bird predators including the peregrine falcon, the osprey and the royal tern to form a new avian golden age on Barnegat Bay....

Standing atop a pile of rocks in Lower New York Bay nearly four miles north of Sandy Hook, the faded Romer Shoal Lighthouse has a colorful past and an uncertain future. The 109-year-old lighthouse was recently honored with a designation as an historic site on both the national and state registries. But that doesn't ensure it will even remain in New Jersey. While the sparkplug-like, 54-foot-tall lighthouse still throws its signal of two white flashes every 15 seconds as far as 15 miles to sea, it is a forlorn sight. Dirty paint -- top-half red, bottom-half white -- is peeling...

As noted in yesterday's Star-Ledger, a potential IGFA All-Tackle world record summer flounder was boated Friday south of Shrewsbury Rocks by Monica Oswald of Neptune. The 38 1/4-incher weighed 24.3 pounds at Scott's Bait and Tackle in Bradley Beach. Scott Christiansen said Oswald was fishing on her 24-foot Answer center console with William Norris when the catch of a lifetime was hooked on a 4-ounce Spro jig in Glo color, tipped with a strip of squid. She was using a Lamiglas boat rod and an Abu Garcia 7000 filled with 65-pound Power Pro braid. At first she assumed that a...

A Methodist ministry at the Jersey Shore has sued the state, accusing the Attorney General's Office of trying to compel the group to allow gay civil union ceremonies in its boardwalk pavilion. The federal lawsuit, filed on Saturday by the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, is the latest salvo in a case that's drawing statewide attention from gay rights advocates and religious conservatives. "Religious groups have the right to make their own decisions without government interference," Brian W. Raum, lawyer for the association, said in a statement Monday. "The government can't force a private Christian organization to use its property...

Seaside: Not All it's Sleazed Up to Be Posted by Belmar Benny August 07, 2007 11:51AM Categories: Belmar Benny, Photos There's no doubt the first reaction most people have when mentioning Seaside Heights will somehow invoke the term "Sleazeside". And sure, Seaside is certainly the most honky-tonk shore town next to Wildwood, and the filthiest next to Atlantic City, but it's not without its charms.  Disregarding nightlife- which aside from Bamboo in my opinion, leaves nothing to be desired (unless you're an 18 year-old juice-bag on coke, who enjoys dancing with your shirt off in a circle of like-minded...

Welcome to the Jersey Shore! Have a great time, but please don't dig too deeply in the sand in Surf City (you could get blown up), feed the seagulls in Ocean City (you could catch a disease), or draw dirty pictures in the sand in Belmar (it's rude). snip... "I used to take pictures of signs at the entrance to beaches that had long lists of all the things you couldn't do," said Dery Bennett, head of the American Littoral Society's Sandy Hook chapter. "There was one with a big word `NO' in red letters at the top and all...

They've been descending on Cape May like fun-starved Shriners at some overbooked convention, feasting on the local fare and making a spectacle of themselves before flitting off with nary a goodbye. At least they're a quiet bunch. And not bad to look at, either. Monarch butterflies, their numbers swollen by favorable summer weather, have overtaken New Jersey's southern peninsula this year as they embark on their annual 2,000-mile journey to warmer climes in the mountains of central Mexico. The profusion of color is part of what naturalists predict will be the largest monarch migration through New Jersey and other eastern...

For 3 1/2 years, Long Branch residents fighting to keep their homes out of the city's oceanfront redevelopment plan mostly battled alone. That changed yesterday. The state public advocate and a national constitutional rights advocacy group will lend their legal muscle to the residents of MTOTSA -- Marine Terrace, Ocean Terrace and Seaview Avenue -- as they appeal a ruling allowing their oceanside homes to be given to a private developer though eminent domain. "As of today, this neighborhood is ground zero in the fight against eminent domain abuse, not only in New Jersey but across the nation," said Chip...

When the federal and state governments started spending tens of millions of dollars replenishing Monmouth County beaches in the 1990s, the borough of Deal resisted. Chief among its objections, federal and state officials said, was homeowners would have had to allow the public on the wealthy borough's many private beaches. So as the Army Corps of Engineers moved ahead in other parts of Monmouth with what it says is the world's largest beachfill project, Deal and two neighboring towns, Loch Arbour and Allenhurst, remained untouched. Ironically, that has made this exclusive stretch of shore particularly attractive to a certain segment...

ERUSALEM - After 61 years of pumping blood, Marie Carty's heart was failing her. Months earlier she had given up her two-mile walk on the boardwalk of her New Jersey hometown along the Atlantic Ocean. She could barely make it from the parking lot to the view of the water. Although Carty knew she needed a new heart, she was afraid hers wouldn't last during the long wait for a transplant. Desperate for an alternative, Carty found the Israeli-Thai company Theravitae, which has begun performing an experimental procedure that multiplies stem cells taken from a patient's own blood and injects...

Gerry Boswell came to island life by birth. Jennifer Yawkey came by marriage. Anthony Dellechiaie bought his way in. They are members of the most rarefied community at the Jersey Shore, where thousands of people own mansions, but only about 60 have their own islands. Even that number is deceiving, since 57 homeowners share the same 38-acre island off Rumson. Along the rest of the state's 127-mile Atlantic coast, environmentalists say there is only a handful of inhabited private islands left in the state's saltwater bays and estuaries. "It is a special way of life that is disappearing, along with...

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- They're terms that Jersey Shore residents have used every summer to describe the tourists lining beaches and boardwalks and filling hotels and restaurants. If you are one of these tourists, it's possible you've never heard of the derogatory nicknames whispered behind your back. In other words, you might be a "bennie" or a "shoobie" and not even know it. Almost everything about the words, from their origin to the frequency of their use, is a subject of disagreement. Yet their existence is undeniable. Even as their region has cashed in on summertime visitors, every generation of...

PRINCETON, N.J. -- Rising seas caused by global warming and other factors will have dire consequences for New Jersey, submerging sections of the state's highly developed coastline by the end of the century, according to a report to be released Wednesday by Princeton University. The Atlantic Ocean, swollen by melting ice caps, could rise by up to 4 feet by the year 2100, moving the coastline 480 feet inland in a worst-case scenario, according to the study co-authored by Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences and international affairs at the university's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. That,...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Americans taking to the roads during the July 4 holiday weekend are almost certain to encounter a traffic bottleneck somewhere, but the biggest is likely to be west of Portland, Oregon, the American Highway Users Alliance said Thursday. The road between Oregon's Willamette Valley, where Portland sits, and the Pacific coast is known for recreation, wineries and beauty. This weekend, it will also be known for slow traffic, the group said in a study titled "Are We There Yet?" Interstate 64 in the Tidewater region of southeastern Virginia is second on the group's list of vacation bottlenecks,...

Will the Birds Stop Returning to Delaware Bay? By TINA KELLEY Published: May 23, 2005 CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE, N.J. - The red knots were already three days late on their flight north from the bottom of the world and the people waiting for them were beginning to get nervous. The birds' dining table was not even set.On the full moon of the fifth month of the year, horseshoe crabs crawl up on the beaches of Delaware Bay to mate, as they have for 200 million years. A decade ago, they covered the beach like cobblestones, and flocks of red...

POINT PLEASANT, N.J. -- The streets are tree-lined, and mostly quiet. The breezes that blow in off the Atlantic Ocean? Heavenly. Even the teenagers are nice, says Eric Hansch, who sees more than his share of them in his Atomic CDs record store when school lets out. "They're the politest kids you'll ever meet," he said. Point Pleasant, indeed. The question around here these days: What the devil was FOX thinking, bringing Satan's offspring ashore in such an idyllic place? Sure, the network's new series "Point Pleasant" is just fiction. But still. "It's evil," said Barbara Stancel, 60, a lifelong...

Hello fellow Freepers. I am taking the plunge and running for City Council here in Ocean City, NJ. I've had enough of the elected officials ignoring the general public.I have already sent out some basic mailers and am going door to door. My campaign website is www.charlielondonforcouncil.com. Any comments or suggestions as I proceed are greatly appreciated. Listed below is the press release that was published in the local papaers announcing my formal filing.*** Press Release ***On Tuesday, March 9, 2004 at 10:00am, Charles M. London will officially file as a candidate for the position of City Council for the...

<p>ASBURY PARK, N.J. (AP) — A gay couple were married in City Hall on Monday after being issued a license by city officials who say New Jersey law does not explicitly ban such unions.</p> <p>In a short 3:30 p.m. ceremony attended by about 10 people, Louis Navarrete and Ric Best, both of Asbury Park, tied the knot in City Council chambers.</p>

ASBURY PARK — The owner of the Stone Pony, who once said waterfront developers would get control of it only “over my dead body,” has agreed to sell to them, putting the famed shore nightclub’s future in jeopardy — again. Domenic Santana will sell the building and transfer its liquor license to Asbury Partners, a company overseeing a $1.2 billion makeover of the city’s decrepit waterfront. Under the sale agreement, Asbury Partners could demolish the building, build a new club elsewhere in the city and call it the Stone Pony, while Santana would be allowed to use the name to...

IT'S almost unheard of at the Jersey Shore: a beach with free parking and no beach tags. But now, thanks to a decision by state officials, this summer's visitors to Cape May Point State Park will find those perks come with a major catch - no swimming. The ban was already being flouted this week by swimmers who promised that, like the early heat wave, their defiance was just a preview of things to come. "It's unfair," said a disgusted Joanie Kane of Lower Township, Cape May County, as she headed for the surf to keep an eye on her...

Eastern European wave filling Shore jobs Published in the Home News Tribune 7/07/02 By JOHN LOFTUS STAFF WRITER [Ocean City, N.J. --]  There are plenty of jobs in Bulgaria. But Ana Ivanova says the money isn't good. So for the second summer in a row, she has come to Ocean City, N.J., to work for the kind of pay college kids earn in an American resort town. That would be about four times, maybe more, she said, than she could get back in her hometown, Sofia, the Bulgarian capital. Trouble is, as of late June, she had not found a...