To the cheers and tears of supportive family and friends, the city welcomed 18 new police officers to the job Thursday. The large-scale police hiring and reorganization of the force is the culmination of months of negotiations between Mayor David Roberts and Police Chief Carmen LaBruno to replenish the force's dwindling numbers.

While the relations between the two have been tense in the past, both men had nothing but praise for each other Thursday as they swore in the city's next generation of officers.

Late Thursday afternoon, Mayor David Roberts and Hoboken Police Chief Carmen LaBruno sat in the mayor's office together. There, in a cooperative effort, the two worked out aspects of a joint statement announcing the city's intention to hire approximately 17 new police officers and reorganize the Hoboken Police Department's structure.

The statement was the culmination of a tense week where LaBruno and City Hall argued over public pressure LaBruno had put on the mayor and City Council to replenish what he said was a short-staffed police force.

INQUEST – Mayor David Roberts has formed a task force uncover the current status of the 324-car automated garage. 
  
Frustrated with the lack of progress at the 324-car garage at 916 Garden St., Mayor David Roberts announced that he will be launching a independent investigation into the garage. According to city officials, Police Chief Carmen LaBruno and Professor Constantin Chassapis, director of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology, will lead the fact-finding mission on the 916 garage.

The investigation will begin immediately, and the mayor expects an initial report of findings and recommendations to be completed within the next two weeks.

Mayor David Roberts’ proposed 2003 budget hinges on $4 million more in state aid.  

The City Council introduced Mayor David Roberts' 2003 fiscal year budget at a special meeting of the City Council Thursday night. According to city Business Administrator Robert Drasheff, the new budget is still a work in progress and could change before it is adopted.

(JERSEY CITY) Rep. Robert Menendez, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, received campaign contributions from Sudanese business interests after sponsoring legislation to help the business avoid US trade sanction. Sudan is high on the State Department List of State Sponsors of terrorism and is also notorious for the continued practice of slavery today.

Sudan is subject to complete US embargo of all goods and services produced there because it has been a haven for terrorists including Osama Bin-Laden who lived there until he was expelled in 1996. The only exemption to the trade ban is the concession won for his home district constituents by Rep. Menendez. The Gum Arabic produced in Sudan is a key ingredient in soft drinks, candy, pharmaceuticals, and ink.

Federal authorities accused Paterson Mayor Martin G. Barnes yesterday of accepting a nonstop stream of free trips, home improvements and luxury items from contractors in return for his help in winning city improvement projects worth millions of dollars.

A grand jury indictment alleges that Barnes sold his office almost from the day five years ago that he became the mayor of New Jersey's third-largest city.

The City Council introduced a $54.8 million budget Wednesday night that cuts spending and taxes slightly. The plan covers the city's expected expenditures and revenues from July 1, 2001 to June 30, 2002.

ENGLEWOOD, N.J., Sept. 8— For years, the Englewood School District has spent thousands of dollars in a court fight to create a school intended to draw students from wealthier communities. Now it is going to great lengths to weed out students from outside its boundaries.

There is no proof that students from outside the district are enrolled here. And school officials say privately that the district's low test scores are not much of an inducement for students to enroll here illegally. But largely because of complaints from an influential citizens' group, the school district over the last half-year has insisted that all families reregister their children.

The school board acted after conceding that the district had not been consistent in the last few years in asking all new parents in the district for proof of residency.

Even parents whose children have been attending Englewood schools for years had to present documentation, including deeds, tax returns and utility bills, to prove that they lived where they said they did. If they did not, district officials said, their children would not be allowed in school, and they would owe past tuition.

When school began Wednesday, officials said they ''disenrolled'' about 300 students whose parents had failed to properly reregister them. Total enrollment in the district's five schools is 2,665.

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