Calling it an "attack on the Constitution," a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez today said the Democrat has appealed to the state Supreme Court to stop a recall effort.

"Mainstream New Jerseyans believe deeply in the U.S. Constitution that for more than 200 years has made ours the greatest form of government in world history," said Afshin Mohamadi, a spokesman for Menendez (D-N.J.). "This attack on the Constitution undermines our uniquely American system of democracy and will be contested."

New Jerseyans would gain greater access to public records and more awareness of government meetings under two bills introduced today by state Sen. Loretta Weinberg.

"We want to change the culture of those people who are custodians of records, of public officials, who think it is their responsibility and duty to keep these things from the public," Weinberg (D-Bergen) said at a news conference in Trenton. "The public owns everything we do."

One measure would update the 2001 Open Public Records Act and rename it in honor of Martin O’Shea, a retired newspaper reporter and editor who bedeviled government officials with detailed requests and a willingness to take denials to court. O’Shea died in December.

The other measure, involving the Sen. Byron M. Baer Open Public Meetings Act, would affect how officials publicize upcoming meetings, and require they list the precise time when the meeting will be open to public comment. It also would add provisions involving electronic communication.

Former Hoboken Fourth Ward Councilman Chris Campos is suing Sgt. James Peck of the Hoboken police and New York City police officer Joseph Liotta in a civil lawsuit over his DUI arrest more than three years ago. The cities of Hoboken and New York were also named in the suit.

Campos, a private practice attorney in Hoboken, is seeking injunctive, compensatory damages from the defendants who arrested him on DUI charges more than three years ago.

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) has begun an unofficial “diversity survey” of Fortune 500 companies and has told the companies that if they do not participate in the survey, he will make their names public.

The survey has already drawn fire from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as “a fishing expedition” and from legal experts, who say companies may violate federal employment laws by even asking such questions of their employees or suppliers.

Menendez, the only Hispanic in the Senate, wants to find out how many minorities, women and disabled people serve as top executives or members of the firms’ corporate boards, as well as the “demographic makeup of your suppliers.”

If a company responds to Menendez’s request, its information will be kept anonymous, although it will be aggregated in a report Menendez plans to issue later this year.

Longport Mayor Nicholas Russo is at his wits' end after his town put up a costly fight staving off a resident who filed excessive records requests to simply "bust chops."

Russo has proposed amending the state's Open Public Records Act, which provides guidelines for interaction between the public requesting government information and the agencies that provide it. Under his proposal, there would be a limit on the number of requests individuals and private agencies could make during a certain time.

Open government advocates have cringed at the idea of putting any type of restriction on records requesters. The current law, some say, already offers solutions for records requests that pose to substantially disrupt operations in towns, big and small.

Moreover, advocates say municipalities that put off investment in e-governance technology — such as providing a searchable electronic database of government documents on the Web — do more to hurt taxpayers than help them.

"It's just a reality that a government agency needs to come to terms with," said Bobby Conner, an open government attorney with New Jersey's American Civil Liberties Union. "(Lawmakers) should not legislate to address problematic requesters."

A resolution authorizing the contractual hiring of a special legal counsel to conduct a legal analysis of Hoboken University Medical Center’s finances squeaked through the board of directors on Wednesday night by a vote of 5-4. The Hoboken Municipal Hospital Authority held the monthly meeting in the hospital’s Assumption Hall.

The resolution was drafted and championed by Toni Tomarazzo, a commissioner who was appointed board chair by five votes early in the evening. The legal counsel, ideally a New Jersey-licensed lawyer with health care expertise, will be expected to oversee accounts payable, fiscal oversight and other hospital issues, Tomarazzo said. She said professional help is necessary for guiding the hospital along.

The Zoning Board of Adjustment’s approval of the construction of a 12-story residential building on 509 Newark St., in Hoboken was rebuffed by the City Council on Wednesday night. The City Council appealed the Zoning Board’s granting of five D-type (or, the most severe) variances regarding the building’s size at the special meeting in City Hall.

Fourth Ward Councilman Michael Lenz motioned and Councilman-at-Large Ravi Bhalla seconded a rejection of the height and bulk variances on the grounds that it was completely unsupported. All variances regarding the size and intended use of the property were overturned.

Department of Homeland Security investigators have contacted New Jersey officials with questions about the fate of federal grant money awarded to Stevens Institute of Technology to help improve the nation's port security, ABC News has learned.

Two state officials described the federal inquiries about the possible misuse of nearly $3 million in Homeland Security grant money distributed to the Hoboken-based technical college, which has spent months under fire over allegations that it mismanaged its books. The state officials discussed the conversations on the condition they not be identified.

The non-profit university had in recent years become a darling of New Jersey's congressional delegation, which has directed millions of dollars in congressional earmarks and federal grants to the school. In 2008 alone, Stevens received $12.8 million in defense related earmarks requested by Sens. Robert Menendez (D), Frank Lautenberg (D) and other New Jersey lawmakers. Stevens also received $4.8 million in stimulus funds through grants from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. departments of transportation, health and human services, and education.

Department of Homeland Security investigators have contacted New Jersey officials with questions about the fate of federal grant money awarded to Stevens Institute of Technology to help improve the nation’s port security, ABC News has learned.

Two state officials described the federal inquiries about the possible misuse of nearly $3 million in Homeland Security grant money distributed to the Hoboken-based technical college, which has spent months under fire over allegations that it mismanaged its books. The state officials discussed the conversations on the condition they not be identified.

When Somerset County Freeholder Patricia Walsh attended a conference in Washington last year with other elected officials from counties across the nation, many were perplexed by the title on her name tag.

“People were saying to me, ‘What’s a freeholder?’” Walsh remembered yesterday. “So I scratched out ‘Freeholder’ and wrote ‘County Commissioner’ instead. Then, they knew what my role was.”

She may never have to do that again.

The state Assembly may soon vote on a bill that changes the title of the elected officials who oversee county government from “freeholder” to “county commissioner” — a move that would affect all of the state’s 21 counties. Many officials say the term is outdated, offensive and confusing.