Camden County

WHEN KOBE Bryant left the Philadelphia area for stardom, he never looked back and didn't really visit all that much, either. But the past he literally left behind - jerseys from his days at Lower Merion High School, varsity letters and rings, a trophy from the Sonny Hill league and other belongings - might bring the Bryant family to U.S. District Court in Camden next month, and it won't be a happy reunion. Kobe and his mom, Pamela, have been engaged in a growing battle over the memorabilia she claims he left at their home after leaving for the NBA. Pamela claimed she had the stuff sitting around for about 15 years, and the Los Angeles Lakers guard didn't want it. She contacted Goldin Auctions of West Berlin, Camden County, last year and signed a consignment deal.

For years Camden City, under a state law, has provided sample ballots in Spanish because of its high concentration of residents who list Spanish as their primary language - more than 10 percent of its registered voters. But now the U.S. Department of Justice is mandating that every municipality in Camden County provide actual ballots, not just samples, and all election material in both English and Spanish. Under the federal Voting Rights Act, a mandate for bilingual ballots in a county is triggered when: At least 10,000, or 5 percent of the voting-age citizens of the county speak a language other than English at home and speak English less than "very well.

The state tournament was a showcase for Camden County schools, which won three of the six South Jersey boys' basketball crowns. The titlists were Highland in Group 4, Camden (Group 3), and Haddonfield (Group 2). The other South Jersey champions were Parochial A's Christian Brothers Academy of Monmouth County, Parochial B St. Augustine (Atlantic County), and Group 1 Florence (Burlington County). Thanks to Florence, Burlington County has the longest current streak of sectional champions.

Camden County will bid on the Woodcrest Country Club in an effort to preserve the bankrupt Cherry Hill golf course as open space when the property is sold at auction Monday. But county officials have not disclosed how much they might spend on the 155-acre property, which will cost potential buyers a minimum bid of at least $6.5 million. Revealing a dollar value would violate collusion laws and undercut the county's bidding position, a county spokesman said. A Marlton real estate group has already entered into an agreement with a bankruptcy trustee to buy the club for $6.25 million, with a minimum bid increment and fees raising the bar for a higher bid by more than $300,000.

Camden County officials are outraged over a court program that rewards juvenile offenders with gifts such as computers and iPods for completing their probation, according to the Courier-Post of Cherry Hill. Freeholders issued a news release this week demanding the state courts end the program, which is offered only in Camden County. The statement described the program as a "disgraceful expenditure of taxpayers' funds" that sends the wrong message. The freeholders said many other children are working hard in school to get good grades or to find jobs to help their families and cannot afford iPods, notebook computers, and similar items.

Efforts to create a Camden County regionalized police force will, for now, focus on specialized services such as a central detective bureau and SWAT team, officials said Thursday. A countywide force remains the goal, said Board of Freeholders spokeswoman Joyce Gabriel, but a combined detectives and K-9 unit may happen "before anything else. " The move, discussed at a closed-door meeting of county, municipal, and law enforcement officials Tuesday, was read by some as stepping back from plans to disband municipal police forces.

Robert D. Melson has resigned as Camden County's public safety director after three months on the job, Freeholder Annette Castiglione-Degan announced yesterday. In his resignation letter, dated May 5, Melson said that he plans to return to his rank as captain in the Cherry Hill Police Department. Melson had spent 26 years in the Cherry Hill department before accepting the $65,000-a-year position as county public safety director on Feb. 23. Melson, whose last day as director will be May 19, could not be reached for comment.

With wind gusts coming in from left field at up to 15 m.p.h., it seemed offense would be at a premium for Eastern's matchup with Sterling on Thursday in the Camden County baseball tournament. Someone forgot to tell the Vikings that, as they cruised to a 10-2 victory to advance to the next round of the tournament against the winner of Cherry Hill West-Triton. Eastern capitalized on only 10 hits by keeping the ball on the ground. "With the wind blowing in hard today, I was a little concerned, but we hit the ball well," Eastern coach Rob Christ said.

A three-alarm fire yesterday adamaged the Oaklyn Garden Apartments in Oaklyn, Camden County. No injuries were reported as a result of the blaze in the two-story, two-building, 20-unit complex at Newton and Oakland Avenues. The cause of the fire was under investigation.

A Camden County grand jury has indicted a 62-year-old Voorhees man who allegedly murdered his neighbor in a June dispute that began with an argument about pet birds. David Giordano of Sherry Court is charged with fatally stabbing 52-year-old Michael Taylor. Giordano allegedly dumped water on Taylor's pet birds because they were chirping loudly from the porch beneath him. Taylor then confronted Giordano, who allegedly stabbed him several times. The indictment was presented March 6 and made public Wednesday.

An attendance clerk at Woodrow Wilson High School filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Superior Court in Camden County alleging attendance inflation by her superiors and the Camden School District. Roxanne Garrett also accuses former Wilson principal Tyrone Richards of sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment. Richards did not return calls for comment Wednesday. In a six-page complaint, Garrett describes a district with an "everyone should fear for their job" mentality.

Camden and Gloucester Counties both saw an increase in the percentage of children living in poverty from 2010 to 2011, while in Burlington County, median family income dropped and more than half of the county's families paid more than the recommended 30 percent of income for housing, according to a new study released Wednesday. On the plus side, Burlington County's infant mortality rate dropped, and median incomes in Camden and Gloucester Counties rose. Those are among the findings of "New Jersey Kids Count," the latest report on child and family well-being in the annual series issued by Advocates for Children of New Jersey.

An investment group led by George E. Norcross III and Ira Lubert announced Saturday it would bid on the bankrupt Woodcrest Country Club, adding a new player to the mix of potential owners of the Cherry Hill golf course. An auction for the club, which filed for bankruptcy last May and did not open this year, is set for Monday. Three other bidders - Camden County, the Union League of Philadelphia, and a Marlton real estate group - are expected to attend, said club trustee Bonnie Glantz Fatell.

Camden County will bid on the Woodcrest Country Club in an effort to preserve the bankrupt Cherry Hill golf course as open space when the property is sold at auction Monday. But county officials have not disclosed how much they might spend on the 155-acre property, which will cost potential buyers a minimum bid of at least $6.5 million. Revealing a dollar value would violate collusion laws and undercut the county's bidding position, a county spokesman said. A Marlton real estate group has already entered into an agreement with a bankruptcy trustee to buy the club for $6.25 million, with a minimum bid increment and fees raising the bar for a higher bid by more than $300,000.

It'll be quite the reunion for the Bryant family in federal court in Camden on June 17. Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant is expected to fly in from the coast, and his parents are prepared to jet across continents from Thailand, where his father, Joseph "Jellybean" Bryant, coach of a basketball team, is in the middle of playoffs. There'll be hugs and kisses - or maybe not - while a judge, or perhaps a jury, will determine whether a Camden County auction house has the right to sell off the player's Lower Merion High School sports uniforms and other memorabilia set for sale by Kobe's mother, Pamela.

This story has been updated from an earlier version. WHEN KOBE Bryant left the Philadelphia area for stardom, he never looked back and didn't really visit all that much, either. But the past he literally left behind - jerseys from his days at Lower Merion High School, varsity letters and rings, a trophy from the Sonny Hill league and other belongings - might bring the Bryant family to U.S. District Court in Camden next month, and it won't be a happy reunion. Kobe and his mom, Pamela, have been engaged in a growing battle over the memorabilia she claims he left at their home after leaving for the NBA. Pamela claimed she had the stuff sitting around for about 15 years, and the Los Angeles Lakers guard didn't want it. She contacted Goldin Auctions of West Berlin, Camden County, last year and signed a consignment deal.

After seeing children with and without disabilities play baseball on a rubber, wheelchair-friendly field in Sewell, Ed McDonnell began thinking that Camden County needed such a field of its own. "I really loved the idea," said the Camden County freeholder. "The real focus is to go beyond just having a place for disabled kids to play . . . to not just watch, but play with them. " McDonnell, the longtime chairman of the board of directors at the Larc School, a nonprofit special-education school in Bellmawr, has been talking about building the field for five years, he said.

More than 30 years ago, as Charles J. Kocher and fellow officer Raymond Garrison patrolled the streets of Camden, the two got the idea of creating a city police museum, and they did, one item at a time. Officers and family members fetched old uniforms, batons, and badges from attics and lent photos dating to the 1920s. In 1981, the display opened in the lobby of the department's new Federal Street headquarters. Among the exhibits were a microphone from a two-way 1930s radio and snapshots of "potato sacks" - wool, below-the-knee police coats - and of green police wagons from the 1950s.

Camden County College will increase its tuition and fees slightly next school year and make budget cuts of about $1.8 million as its operating budget shrinks because of ever-rising costs and flat government funding. The school's board of trustees approved the budget at its meeting Tuesday night. The tuition and fee increases were adopted in March. Total cost per credit at Camden County College will increase $5 next year to $138 for in-county students, $142 for out-of-county students, and $217 for international students.