A. New Jersey nightly news. With Sandra King Trying to him. In the news tonight a Patterson banker pleas for the safe return of his kidnapped wife promising to pay at least three hundred thousand dollars in ransom. A tentative contract has been reached between the state and its white collar workers. And in sports tonight Trista Gaspar's has a report on championship T-ball and Bosh in Asbury Park. The wife of a Patterson bank vice president was kidnapped yesterday.
But news of it only came to light last night. Want to tempt to pay the kidnappers one hundred and fifty thousand dollars ransom has already failed. And as Phelps Hawkins reports the continued silence of the kidnappers has law enforcement officials and the victim's husband worried. From holding. Its breath. Waiting. I have all the money as the man. And I only want to deliver it whenever wherever. That's about. The main reason William Dietrich finally chose to speak to reporters this morning was worried about the silence from the kidnappers. Dietrich had been at the Franklin Bank and Trust Company where he is executive vice president. Since yesterday morning at 10:30 when he got a call at the bank saying his wife had been kidnapped and the voice on the phone demanded a hundred fifty thousand dollars. The FBI was notified almost immediately. Details are still sketchy. Evidently Dick's wife
Joan was abducted from their home in a quiet almost rural area of North Jersey near West Milford. But neither Dietrich nor law enforcement spokesman are giving any further details. Police and FBI have also warned residents of the neighborhood not to talk to reporters but neighbors did say that almost everybody in the area own dogs at least partially with security in mind except for the D drinks because members of the family are allergic to dogs. Dogs that could have warned Mrs. Dietrich of an intruder. No not absolutely. Nothing at all I mean the kids are here and I don't know. The FBI has set up its headquarters at the West Milford police offices about five miles north of the Diedrich residence. If there is any action to be taken. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies will take that action. But at the present time no action whatsoever is being taken by any law enforcement agency at the specific request of the of the subjects of the victim McDonnell reported that yesterday Dietrich took a hundred
fifty thousand dollars to two different phone books as directed by the kidnappers. But something went wrong. McDonnell would not say what. But when the kidnappers called back at four o'clock yesterday afternoon the Ransom went up to $300000. All last night and all day today Dietrich has been waiting at the bank but no word yet. Officials are not even sure how many kidnappers are involved. Everybody is just waiting in West Milford. I'm Phelps organs. Negotiations were finally concluded this morning on the new two year contract for 32000 state employees and that means the two unions involved could hold a ratification vote early next week. The money portions of the pact provide for 12 percent pay hike over two years. That's the same thing that prompted a four day walkout earlier this month. But the president of the Civil Service Association predicted union members would approve it this time around. Throughout the strike and the talks the state held firm to its position that it didn't have the money to sweeten the salary offer.
Since yesterday a small group of protesters has been camped outside the Postal Service's bulk mail center in Jersey City. They're angry about being fired last summer during a strike at four different postal facilities around the country including that one in Jersey City. They say they still want their jobs back. Hawkins reports. The group of about 25 some of them the former postal employees fired for last summer's strike spent last night camped outside the gate leading into the huge bulk mail facility. They named their temporary settlement Bolger avail after U.S. postmaster general William Bolger the protest actually got going this morning just before the new lunch break ins. It was hoped that lunch goers would join in the demonstration in support of their former coworkers. But not many did. Excuse me are you in sympathy with the protesters out here. I'm sorry and I wouldn't care if you know what I mean. And a postal security people watched the demonstration from the
parking lot and from the roof of the facility and finally moved out to the protesters when picketing began at noon. At issue is the firing of some 200 postal workers following a walkout last July at postal facilities in Jersey City Carney Washington D.C. and San Francisco. The walkout involved most of Jersey City's facilities. Forty two hundred workers and was called by the leaders of the American Postal Workers Union. But the people fired where rank and file union members not leaders and those fired say they were betrayed by their union leadership in that respect today's demonstration was both against the union leadership and for getting their jobs back. IN JERSEY CITY I'M felt talking. State officials say a massive leak from a Texaco oil tank in Newark has been sealed and they say the more than 2 million gallons that spilled have been contained with most of that pumped
back into storage. The leak was believed caused by a split in a primary containment wall around the clock efforts aimed at keeping the spill within the secondary containment walls and an outside trench. The fear was that the leak would affect groundwater beneath the tank and eventually leach out into Newark Bay. But officials now say the crisis is over. The oil that leaked could produce enough gas to drive New Jersey cars 35 million miles a slumlord could be Cavils and has until Wednesday to comply with municipal court orders in Newark. If he misses that deadline judge Betty Lester says she'll arrest and jail him less to find $17000 in April for failure to provide his tenants with heat last winter. And now he must submit a plan to the court insuring those tenants have enough heat this winter. Also by Wednesday and must post checks with a court representing restitution payments to tenants who went without heat for periods of up to two months have also now owns about 90 tenements most of them in New York and Jersey City. His buildings were the scene of more than
100 fires over a 30 month period including a Jersey City blaze last winter that killed a family of seven. Jackson Township man has been arrested in connection with the murder of his wife and the shooting of a male friend. Police say 30 year old William McMeekin is being held for questioning today in the Ocean County Jail Meekins wife Susan was found fatally wounded when police arrived at their home last night. A companion John Taylor of Howell township was unconscious with a gunshot wound to the stomach. Authorities say formal charges could be filed in the case as soon as tomorrow. A group of recovering alcoholics demonstrated at the Union County Courthouse in Elizabeth yesterday protesting budget cuts which they say could force a detoxification center to close its doors. Center officials say the cuts have already forced them to decrease staff and reduce their 20 beds by half. They're asking for at least $14000 to keep the treatment facility going until October when it becomes eligible for greater state and federal funding. Yes wasn't too hard to come by today but it will be
harder to get tomorrow. The gasoline retailers association says 70 percent of the stations in the state were open today but only 30 percent will be pumping tomorrow. If you're going to the shore though the Triple-A estimates that nearly half the stations in shore areas will be open tomorrow. And don't forget you can now get seven dollars worth of gas on the Garden State Parkway. A sign the gas station may really be improving. The president of New Jersey's freedom oil company says her synthetic oil could take the place of hard to get crude oil business one singer took that pitch to Washington yesterday in the hopes of convincing the Carter administration freedom synthetic oil is made from fatty acids wood stumps and vegetable wastes. The fuel is already being sold in 36 states and Swanson says that while it's more expensive than conventional oil it will last longer and even lubricate better. Route 9 bus compute commuter group is literally boiling the group says Lincoln transit of Lakewood is running nearly half of its buses without acquisition and they're asking the state to halt
Lincolns profitable charter and Atlantic City Express runs until the company fixes the air conditioning commuters call that a starting point. Two small refugees from the civil war in Nicaragua are getting used to their new home in Franklin Township today. Three year old Christie and 11 week old Scott arrived in New York from Managua last night and Ridge Wells files this report. Bill and Pat Locy arrived at Newark airport two hours early last night nervously awaiting the arrival of their two children children they had never seen. They had adopted two Nicaraguan youngsters in late May but when the fighting broke out in Managua the government wouldn't let the children leave the country. Then when it arrived when President Somoza fled the country the American embassy got the children out on evacuation flights. The trip took the children from Managua to Panama City to Miami and finally at seven o'clock last night Newark. Where the scene was that. That was last night. Today the crowds are gone and the children have begun a new life instead of an orphanage. They each have a room of their own rooms
filled with toys. Alosi say they had serious doubts about whether or not the children would ever get out of Nicaragua. There was at one point in time a possibility of a plane going to Managua myself to try and get in town the State Department suggested that was a very wise thing to do. They really didn't want me to go there and hear the Lucy say their daughter seems to be well-adjusted considering all the strife she's lived through and they also say they plan to spoil the children at first. Mr Locy says he already has his Eye on a bicycle for his son and the boys only 11 weeks old in Franklin Township. That sunshine that was expected today never made its way through the clouds. But many found some cool wet relief from the humidity and hot temperatures. It was a chance of rain all day but it should diminish by tonight when we'll have mostly cloudy skies. Temperatures will be in the mid 60s to near 70 throughout the state. Tomorrow partly sunny skies are in the forecast. Hopefully we won't be disappointed and it'll be
downright hot and humid. Temperatures will range from 85 to 90 a little cooler along the shore on Monday look for partly sunny skies and warm temperatures. He had a wife who he could not help believing. He was traveling abroad that he would sign it when he had yet again to go to places which others kind of themselves lucky to see once in a lifetime. He had everything that a man might to me to design such a mouth that was trying to picture a woman that grew to dream. Watch the glittering prizes tonight at 9:00. Bill Perry is on vacation but Tricia Gaspar's is here with today's sports these days even sports for little kids are super competitive and sometimes
fun. But we found a team where competition is play down and fun is stressed. The result in the winningest T-ball team in Mercer County T-ball is for 17 year old boys and girls. The game is exactly as it sounds. You place the ball on the tee and swing the ball has all the rules of regular baseball with a few additions. There are only six innings per game and nine batters maximum for everybody that's in this game and everybody plays at least two innings out in the field. And if you can strike out the biggest advantage of T-ball is that the youngsters don't start pitching too early and put wear and tear on their arms. But that's not the only benefit according to coach John ma'am. We teach the basics. Feeling a ball following a ball in the glove and making the throws accurate. The age group in the idea of the league is to train them and teach them
so that when they get up in the older leagues they're prepared for it. Now I know that you are training them physically how about mentally. That's all we get from kids who are very shy and. Inward. And the league brings it out they they come out they learn how to play with other kids and in. A team sport the team spirit. Now ASOS isn't just any T-ball team this team is a championship team. These kids are on a 32 game winning streak and haven't lost a game in two years. In this game one twenty eight to 10 and these high scores aren't unusual. Their highest score ever was 40 to 20 which they won. And their biggest shutout ever was 21 to nothing. And how do the players feel about T-ball. Well they love it. It was easier. For him. It's hard. To target right. Yeah.
It sure is that young man power drove in the winning run today that made his team the league champs for the second year in a row. The Meadowlands almost got a chance to feature a top boxing match. For a while it looked as if the home Shavers fight would be held at the complex in mid-September but now negotiations are off and the fight won't be held there. Bill Perry spoke with the executive director of the Meadowlands to find out why. We've got a rather unique situation here Bill in that the night that the fight was to be held we had racing schedules so we would have to cancel racing what day it is that there was a time before for anybody now they're talking about moving the fight to the 28 that another site that's right 20 it wouldn't work here either. I think it was a 28 which is a Friday but same problem with racing a schedule what that means is that we have to cancel racing because we would expect a crowd in excess of 40 or 50000 and therefore our parking lots would have to be shared. If we had a racing it's not a good situation. And that's for Sandy.
Thanks Josh. Nice job. State employee strike. Truck drivers strike. Gas dealers threaten to strike many of these strikers provide essential services to the public. Commentator Tom Kane feels that although some of their gripes are valid workers who provide vital services threaten the very fabric of society when they walk off their jobs. That was during the truckers strike. I stopped along the turnpike to get a bite to eat. At the next table. Three truckers were discussing the death the day before of a driver in North Carolina. The older of the three supported the strike the condemned the violence the younger men argued that some people will have to die before anybody in Washington listens. Now that statement was extreme. But more and more groups in our society feel that in order to get their way they must make their fellow citizens suffer. Here in New Jersey this summer we've seen gasoline dealers threaten to shut down to dramatize the demand for a greater margin of profit and employees picketing the state office buildings to prevent the delivery of disability benefits and welfare checks. Now it's safe to predict that
over the next six months work stoppages or strikes will deny people in our state educational services and hospital care. In some cities rats will be made to the public safety by walkouts of police fire or sanitation employees. Now it's not my desire he had to judge the grievances involved to say which workouts are justified and which are not. The separate good strikes from bad strikes. I do know that in a free society one group of citizens cannot continue to get their way simply by blackmailing other groups of citizens by withholding vital services. We must find another way of settling legitimate grievances. Of course workers deserve to stay ahead of inflation but they must not get their extra 2 or 3 percent by removing services that threaten the lives or property of innocent people. Our lives are interconnected in this democracy we have cruelly brothers people the frail fabric of our society is easily damaged if it breaks. Government can no longer deliver vital services to its people. Then violence and anarchy just down the road.
I'm Tom K.. Atlantic City's pageant motor hotel has been sold to make room for yet another casino. A group of investors wants to use the pageant's boardwalk site to build a five hundred fourteen room casino hotel right next to convention hall. The purchase price was not disclosed and the project still needs a number of state and local Go ahead including an important nod from the state's Casino Control Commission. A proposed federal Superfund for the emergency cleanup of hazardous waste would be no more than a starting point. So says state attorney general John Degnan. Testifying before a Senate subcommittee in Washington said the proposed 500 million dollar fund isn't super enough to lift the cleanup burden from state governments like New Jersey. According to the attorney general the real cost nationwide could soar up to several billion dollars. They can that's something less than panacea. And even before cleanup becomes necessary a Bergen County Assemblyman wants to keep those hazardous
materials out of the state's most populous areas. Myron Bair has introduced a bill that would bar the transportation or storage of nuclear and radioactive substances in seven densely populated counties. And the bill would give the state leverage to expand that ban to other parts of the state when warranted. They're called the potential danger from those materials. Immense. If you have no records you already know how. Much. That's tonight at 8:00 on New Jersey Public Television.
In Washington the president began the week with determination but the week ended with speculation and resignation. Michael Cassio reports on the congressional side of all the turmoil with Congress watch the New Jersey view of Washington. The White House whirlwind has members of Congress crowding opinions with each change and waiting to see what's next. And reports indicate that President Carter's next offensive once he's through with the personnel changes will be to bear down on Congress to get its programs into law. He's not been too successful so far and though New Jersey lawmakers tend to support him they're still skeptical. South Jersey Congressman James Florio told a reporter he thought the president's energy proposals were OK but question the moves that followed. The other actions that were taken this week. Unfortunately I think deflect from the main thrust of what we should be doing that is concentrating on energy. That is the cabinet shakeups the kind of esoteric way in which this is all come to
pass. I'm not sure it's healthy and I think it's putting too much emphasis on personalities putting too much emphasis on the changes of people when we really should be talking about developing policy. Gloria says if you look closely at the president's energy proposals they do reduce our dependence on foreign oil. But it seems not too many people are looking closely at President Carter's energy proposals. Congressman Frank Thompson of Trenton says he knows why. He told me he worries President Carter might have done all that he proposed earlier in the week with his shake ups later in the wait this ific Lee Thompson criticized the decision to fire cabinet secretaries Khalaf onno and Blumenthal. Thompson said they were brighter than the president's own staff and that's why he said the Georgians wanted them out. But Thompson did say that the president does seem to be moving toward some kind of resolve on the energy crisis with Congress. One indication of that came from Millicent Fenwick of Central Jersey. She's a Republican but called on both Republicans and Democrats to support President Carter.
We're not Republicans that we're citizens first. And if we don't support our country and he's the only president we've got in this Iowa which is so difficult we don't deserve to be there. We have got to rise above partisan politics in my books at least wherever you does something sensible. We've got to rally around Congressman Robert grow up I say accounting agrees give the president the benefit of the doubt he says. Rose a Democrat but he warns the future of the Carter administration is now on the line. And Senator Harrison Williams one of those who went to Camp David last week found the president's commitment to mass transit encouraging. I hear it is a strong strong commitment to mass transportation opportunities is one of the very necessary alternatives to what we have now which is just an unconscionable reliance on gasoline for transportation.
Like other liberals however Williams was discouraged by the firing of California but he said it was good news that California was replaced with Patricia Harris former head of Housing and Urban Development. Now as you probably figured out much of this week's action in Congress was not exactly in Congress but in the hallways and the cloak room. Nevertheless there was action on nuclear power plants in the Senate. Senators decided not to put a halt to new nuclear plants but they did vote for new strong controls. Leaving supporters and opponents of nuclear power both claiming victory. New Jersey senators Williams and Bradley voted for a moratorium on nuclear plant construction to no avail. And over in the house the temperature was rising. A member actually dared to come into the chamber without a coat and tie. But heat or no heat. Members voted against allowing short sleeves on the floor and in the humidity and heat of a Washington summer. In the energy crisis House members will just have to keep getting hot under the collar traditionalist said it was a matter of decorum. Veteran
Frank Thompson of New Jersey said it was simply a matter of comfort. If he's right it looks like it'll be an uncomfortable summer in the house. That's this week's Congress watch. I'm Michael Cassio. And the draft may be returning. It seems the all volunteer armed services aren't attracting as many volunteers as anticipated and so a move to reinstitute the military draft is now awaiting action in Congress. It's attached to the defense appropriations bill and supporters say it's necessary for quick mobilization in case of emergency. They also say it's essential if the U.S. is to keep up with the Soviet Union and military strength. But opponents say the volunteer army is sufficient and see no need to intrude on the lives of non volunteers. Outside Congress however opposition focuses not so much on how many soldiers are in office but on the fear of a growing militarism and the fear of another Vietnam. Truly the availability of manpower that made it very easy for the Pentagon to get us into a war before we realized what was happening.
Protesters charged the military with trying to sneak the registration provision passed Congress and the public by hiding it in the 40 billion dollar appropriations bill. Which was absolutely unprecedented that a piece of legislation dealing with the draft should be attached to a spending bill especially a spending bill of 40 billion dollars which includes things like BMX missile Trident submarine which will be especially controversial in this year weren't sold as being proposed if the measure passes and is signed into law. Young men turning 18 in 1981 or later will have to register with their draft boards. A 19 year old New Jersey woman was killed today in a two car collision in Camden County. Cynthia Gilbert and a husband John were riding in a car driven by Franklin wells. Police said a car driven by a 21 year old Shayna Hendricks hit them head on. In an unrelated accident. A 33 year old man was killed when his car struck the rear of a disabled tractor trailer carrier Koski was traveling along the New Jersey Turnpike when he rammed into the trailer on the
side of the road. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Perth Amboy hospital. New Jersey's first moon mission ended today and the command module splashed down safely in the Passaic River. A group of high school students marked the 10th anniversary of the first moon mission by recreating the Apollo 11 flight blasted off last week and a student Neil Armstrong walked a carny lunar surface. Once again our top stories FBI officials say they're holding back on a search for the kidnapped wife of that Patterson banker. William Dietrich has promised to pay at least $300000 ransom. But he hasn't heard from the kidnappers in 24 hours. A tentative contract has been reached between the state and its white collar workers. It calls for exactly the same wage hike that was rejected two weeks ago. And the hot humid weather we've been having will stay with us through tomorrow but hopefully with at least partly sunny skies. And that's New Jersey nightly news less SATURDAY EDITION. I'm Sandra King. Trish joins me
in wishing you a good night. New Jersey likely news is a joint presentation of New Jersey Public Television and w
any TV or TV on Saturday and Sunday. The program is broadcast at 6 p.m. both on New Jersey public television and on Channel 13. Portions a record. Deal.
