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UPDATE: Power restored for many, but some still wait Tens of thousands of homes and businesses across the state are without power Friday due to a combination of issues at a substation and switching stations for two of the state's major utility companies, officials said. The overall outages for PSE&G and JCP&L customers hit 50,000 customers by 11 a.m. The problem areas and numbers have changed rapidly through morning since the outages began around 5:30 a.m. Union County was bearing the brunt of the outages at 11 a.m. with 21,000 PSE&G customers without electricity due to what a spokeswoman called...

"New Jersey jihadist arrested in Yemen worked at nuclear power plants" SNIPPET: "The South Jersey man who Yemini officials are calling a terrorist with links to al-Qaeda previously worked at three local nuclear power plants. Sharif Mobley, 26, is being held in a jail in Yemen after he allegedly killed a police guard and seriously injured another during a shootout at a hospital on Monday. The Buena, N.J. native has also been accused of taking part in several acts of terrorism, Yemini officials say. He also purportedly has ties to the same branch of al-Qaeda who are suspected of attempting...

Working-class New Jerseyans could be big financial losers if the state isn't careful in its new war on global warming, says the leader of the state's largest electric company. Public Service Enterprise Group's Ralph Izzo supports the landmark law signed by Governor Corzine. Fighting climate change will be "the defining issue of our future," the chief executive said. But tackling global warming will mean higher electric bills, Izzo said. It will become more expensive to burn the coal and natural gas that produce heat-trapping greenhouse gases but also supply much of North Jersey's power. "For some people, you're talking about...

A search for clues in the latest shutdown of the Hope Creek nuclear reactor. A radioactive steam leak caused the shutdown Sunday night. The plant's operator says the slow leak began in February. That was just weeks after the trouble-plagued plant had been shut for three-and-a-half months because of a bigger leak. P-S-E-and-G Nuclear said yesterday the problem could be diagnosed and fixed within the next few weeks. The company also said no radioactivity was released outside the plant and no workers were harmed in either of the steam leaks. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission put Hope Creek and two...

Three men were killed early Wednesday when they were electrocuted by a power line that had fallen on a vehicle, authorities said. The men were electrocuted around 4:30 a.m. when one touched the vehicle and two others came to his aid, said Leslie A. Cifelli, a spokeswoman for Public Service Electric & Gas. The names of the victims were not immediately available, as police did not return a message. The PSE&G line provided normal residential service, carrying 13 kilovolts of electricity, Cifelli said. The utility had gotten no calls about the downed wire and did not know how it came...