Courier-Post from Camden, New Jersey • Page 27

Sunday, Kcpti'mlxT 9, 2001 www.courierpostonlinc.com Late TV changes 4 Obituaries 4 fersey South State police cancel weapons contract FiU'erup and do you like Austen? be returned after too many jam in training Massachusetts-based Smith Wesson. The company will keep the remaining $321 ,000 because about 400 of the weapons were fired during training and some cartridges were used. Ironically, the state police decided to buy the new guns, which carry 16-shot clips, after Trooper Scott Gonzales was shot to death by a mental patient when his nine-shot service weapon jammed on Oct. 24, 1997. In a news release Saturday, Dunbar said the Smtth Wesson Mwlel 99s were chosen after about 60 state police personnel from different disciplines extensively tested them, as well as handguns from other manufacturers.

The weapons evaluation committee and a separate bid evaluation committee recommended buying Smith Wesson guns. The problems didn't surface until after troopers around the state began training on the first batch of several hundred handguns. 3,200 pistols to Associated Press TRENTON The New Jersey State Police and the manufacturer of new handguns that jammed repeatedly during trooper training have reached an agreement to cancel the purchase of all 3,200 service weapons, state officials said Saturday. The state police had agreed to pay Smith Wes ing at firing ranges. The troopers' union said some jammed so badly it often took more than one person to fix.

Under an agreement Smith Wesson reached late Friday with Attorney General John J. Farmer Jr. and State Police Superintendent Col. Carson J. Dunbar the contract is officially canceled and the guns will be returned once they are II IHIIJUIIIH HIIIIIHHII UIHI II IMlMJHilMl'Hilll "Mil iB il I 1 1 iiMj IW II I 'I II" IP MB 'I I 'IW'WMIWWIIUHIIlllWJff JOSE F.

MORENOCourier-Post The Lenape Regional Performance Center is among the advanced facilities housed in Evesham's new Cherokee High School South. Officials, parents examine facilities that will enhance children's education Parents urged to help kids fight fat Associated Press TRENTON Barraged by advertisements for junk food, schoolchildren need help from their parents to avoid developing a lifelong weight problem, according to a public health expert. Parents should use the school lunch bag as a weapon against childhood obesity, said Dr. Leah Zis-kin, associate dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford. "Children see nearly 10,000 advertisements each year for fast food, candy and cereals and drinks with high sugar content," Ziskin said.

"If we're going to impact on the epidemic of childhood obesity, then parents are going to have to counter this advertising by teaching healthy eating habits to their children," she said. Doctors, medical groups and public health officials have been warning for several years that overweight children, particularly those who are severely overweight, are at high risk of remaining overweight as adults. That, in turn, puts them at increased risk of serious health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke and some cancers. the Shore You may have heard about that "all-American" gas station on the White Horse Pike in Magnolia. The proprietor has put up a sign proclaiming his red, white and blue roots.

He says it's his way of protest ing the proliferation of stations run by, set this. nen. pg Wfw 4 speak English very well. As someone who treasures the language it's how I make Kevin Riordan the big bucks needed to fill my tank I share his concern about our declining mother tongue. I am SICK AND TIRED of pulling into my local Getty or Texaco or Bush-Cheney station, chatting up the attendant about Shakespeare and getting back a blank stare.

The other day, the guy pumping my ail-American gas was wearing a turban. Right away, I knew it was hopeless to try and discuss Joyce Carol Oates with someone who refuses to don the ail-American male uniform of droopy pants and boxer shorts. Disappointed, I went to the dry cleaners to drop off some of my all-American shuts. I just wanted to have a nice friendly discussion about Henry James, and guess what? VThe owner brushed off my literary invitation with a heavUy accented, "is Saturday all Now completely distraught, I stopped at a 7-Elev-en where the clerk was not only born outside the United States, but was in no mood to banter about F. Scott Fitzgerald.

The nerve of these people. f. Who are they? WHERE DO THEY COME FROM? I bet they get aU sorts of special assistance unlike our noble forefathers, who came here with nothing (or in the case of African Americans, nothing except chains). I bet they take free courses to learn how to work long hours for low pay in potentially hostile environments like the White Horse Pike. Meanwhile, their inability to speak the bee-yoo-tee-ful English for which South Jersey is renowned has begun to spread.

The other night, I couldn't understand a word spoken by the writhing, raving, half-naked celebrities on the MTV Video Music Awards (and I'm talking about the audience don't get me started about the performers). So I channel-surfed. And guess what I found? A Spanish-language network! OK, so it was the sole exception among 60 English-speaking channels. But that's only true if you don't count those scrambled networks where everyone converses in a dialect of moans, groans and "work it baby, work it, oh wow, yeah baby go for it BABY!" Which does, I suppose, qualify as a universal language. Kevin Riordan's column runs Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.

Contact him at (856) 486-2604 or kriordancourierpostonline.com DONNA JENKINS Metro Editor (856) 486-2408 cpmetrocourierpostonline.com hi "What we do here today is dedicate this school to all of the children." Daniel F. Hicks, Lenape district superintendent son Corp. $1.3 million for the Model 99 9mm side arms and some magazine cartridges delivered earlier this year to barracks around the state. All but $377,000 was paid, according to Roger Shatzkin, spokesman for the state Department of Law and Public Safety. State police recalled all the pistols in March because about 10 percent of them malfunctioned during train the ninth- and lOth-grad-ers is based on 30 years of research that shows the advantages of smaller schools, said Cherokee South principal Kenneth Denn.

Student achievement goes up, discipline problems and substance abuse go down and family involvement is enhanced, he said. On Tuesday, the addition opened to freshmen with state-of-the-art laboratories, spacious corridors and natural lighting around virtually every corner. Combined with the former Cherokee High CotRlERPOSIUnlir, See our Web site for updates on the ShopRite strike. 1,500 workers. Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1360, who are striking for better wages and benefits, said they had been turning away shoppers to chains like Pathmark, Acme and Super G.

One chain they won't mention is Genuardi's. A billboard on the local's headquarters, about 900 yards down Route 73 from the ShopRite in Berlin Township, urges people to avoid Genuardi's because it is a nonunion store. The crowds at the normally bustling parking lots and stores in Berlin Township and at the Garden State Pavilion in Cherry Hill thinned to a trickle. collected. "This contract was out there.

It had to be resolved in order to move on," Shatzkin said. State police can now select and purchase new weapons. Troopers have continued to use their old service weapons, Heckler and Koch pistols. The state will be reimbursed $625,000 of the $946,000 it has already paid form, "if you don't have adequate facilities, it isn't going to happen." The new school, which is attached to the old one by hallways, is one answer to overcrowding that had students in cramped quarters in previous years. The new space doesn't just mean more elbow room, Hicks said, but the chance to expand academic offerings to stu it JOHN ZIOMEKCounef-Pos Picket Christina Fasolo gives a thumbs-up sign to a passerby supporting the striking employees at the Berlin ShopRite.

By ANGELA RUCKER Courier-Post Staff EVESHAM Education leaders from Burlington County gathered here Saturday to ceremonially throw open the doors to the new $26.4 million Cherokee High School South. It is a school within a school that is now home for 1,150 ninth- and 10th-graders who live in the township. "Wow" is how Evesham Township Mayor Gus Tamburro described the addition to Cherokee High School. The idea of separating dents. Though small, Cherokee South has a leg up in areas where other small schools fall short, Denn said, ticking off access to the new auditorium called the Lenape Regional Performance Center and ample playing fields.

"So (students) really do have the best of both worlds," he said. The new school gets enthusiastic support from parents like Donna and Bob Shultz, whose son, Steven, is a senior this year. See SCHOOL, Page 2B With no talks set. Tour shows doo-wop charm of Wildwoods By WILUAM H. SOKOUC Tlvi wi Courier-Post Staff lJUUJil strike turns to war School, now called Cherokee North, the education complex stretches some 455,000 square feet.

"What we do here today is dedicate this school to all of the children," Daniel F. Hicks, Lenape district superintendent, said. He said no matter how good academic programs are or how well educators or administrators per ShonRite of signs Cherry Hill residents Barbara Coppens and Josephine Messina rolled three baskets of groceries out of the Cherry Hill store. "We've been with ShopRite for a long time," Cop-pens said. "We like shopping here because we like the produce and the service.

Plus, they're very big sponsors of Special Olympics." Another shopper in Cherry Hill, Pete Plianthos of Pennsauken, said he felt the strikers' pain even though he didn't know' what exactly they were demanding. "If they're looking for more money, I understand," he said. Still, the ShopRite is convenient for Plianthos, who opened his trunk to show the few things he had bought dinner napkins and two bunches of bananas. "I can't go too far for See STRIKE, Page 3B By TOM LOUNSBERRY and ANGELA RUCKER Courier-Post Staff It was a battle of posters at the Berlin Circle Plaza Shopping Center on Saturday. Pickets strolled back and forth in front of the building with signs that read "UNFAIR! ShopRite.

Please do not patronize. ON STRIKE." Meanwhile, the supermarket windows displayed posters reading "Wanted: Temporary employees. Positions available for cashiers, produce clerks, night crew and grocery clerks." But no one was rushing to fill out forms. The strike against 10 stores in Burlington, Camden and Gloucester counties entered its second day Saturday, with no talks scheduled between the Wakefern Food the cooperative representing the stores, and the union representing 1,400 to WILDW00D Katy Davison has spent many an overnight stay in Cape May, drawn to its Victorian charm. But she never thought to meander the half-dozen miles to the Wildwoods.

"My expectations of a hotel always made me think of Cape May before Wildwood," said Davison, who manages Ramada Vacation Suites in Brigantine. She recently dined at the upscale restaurant Maureen and slept at the Star-lux, two examples of Wild-wood's push to become the world's doo-wop capital, in the same way Cape May earned its reputation as a Victorian capital. Her visit was part of Maureen's Retro Runaway, a package deal that runs Wednesday through Sunday in the first three weeks in September. For $179, couples get a night at the Starlux, a full dinner at Maureen, one amusement ride at Morey's Pier and a continental breakfast. More importantly, the package offers visitors a chance to get acquainted with the Wildwoods' doo-wop side.

"It's geared for those who have a day off during the week," said Maureen Horn, who owns and operates the restaurant and martini bar bearing her name, along with husband Steve, who is the chef. The package will be offered again in the spring. The Horns offered a similar package when they owned and operated a res- See WILDWOODS, Page 3B I 3 TPIfflfr.