Camden

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.

A new kind of food truck is making its rounds in Camden. The Fresh Mobile Market, a community garden on wheels, made its first stop Wednesday at Mickle Tower, an affordable-housing high-rise for senior citizens near the waterfront. The refrigerated trailer, operated by the Camden City Garden Club, carries fresh seasonal produce and will drive to scheduled locations during the next year, including churches and community centers. Many residents in high-rise public housing don't have ready access to fruits and vegetables, said Mayor Dana L. Redd.

In a swift meeting Tuesday evening in which none of the Camden Board of Education members answered any questions from worried school employees, the board approved the layoff of nearly 100 teachers and support staff and all 113 lunch aides. The board also approved the layoff of Joseph Carruth, the principal who was just rehired by the district at the start of the school year after a tumultuous court battle to get his job back. More than 100 people showed up for Tuesday's meeting at the school administration building.

Colan Miller pitched a four-hitter with six strikeouts as Camden Catholic tightened its grip on the top spot in the Olympic National with a 7-2 victory over Timber Creek on Monday. Miller, a senior righthander, allowed just two hits and no runs in the final five innings as the Irish improved to 13-7 overall and 8-2 in the Olympic National. Junior centerfielder Tom Gallagher delivered the big hit for the Irish, a two-run single in the third. "We've been overlooked all year," Miller said.

A Camden County jury awarded $596,000 to two Hispanic firefighters who said they were passed over for promotions because of discrimination and their persistent and public complaints about discrimination against minorities within the Camden Fire Department. Andres Nieves, 48, of Medford Lakes, and Samuel Munoz, 34, of Camden, said they were unfairly turned aside for promotion to captain in 2009. On Thursday the jury found the men also faced a hostile work environment and retaliation.

After a young woman in her neighborhood committed suicide in April, Pamela Robb vowed to attend the Camden Trauma Summit. "If one of us is hurting, we're all hurting," said Robb, 58, the tenant association president at the Northgate II high-rise in North Camden. A Camden resident for a half-century, Robb was among 150 citizens, clergy, and public health and safety professionals who gathered Monday at the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University. The relentless toll that violence exacts on Camden, a big small town that's been called America's most dangerous city, was the focus of the summit.

By Raymond Lamboy Gov. Christie has set the stage, and Mayor Dana L. Redd has cleared the path for a grand experiment in urban public education that will unfold in Camden. As with every well-thought-out experiment, a thesis or hypothesis statement is presented to measure success or failure. In this instance, the thesis seems to be this: The introduction and expansion of alternative-education models will lead to a functioning education system that will provide the children of Camden with an education on par with their suburban neighbors and will result in greatly increased student achievement.

Camden Bishop Dennis Sullivan delivered an impassioned homily Friday evening at a Vineland church, telling a crowd of more than 1,500 that the Catholic Church was pushing for immigration reform in Congress with "a moral urgency we have not had in the last decade. " The sermon, at Divine Mercy Parish, came as Congress appears to be on the cusp of changes that have eluded lawmakers in recent years. Given the new opportunity, Sullivan urged parishioners to contact their members of Congress and ask them to move legislation forward.

Old-school solution on booze Kudo's to Pennsylvania's Republican governor for having the courage to act on what he firmly believed was in the best interest of our state concerning the sale of liquor. The highly unpopular action he took was certain to provoke outrage, not just from Democrats but from within his own party. Of course, this man of courage and principle was not today's incumbent, but Gov. Gifford Pinchot in 1933. When Prohibition ended, Pinchot set up the State Store system and focused on making buying liquor "as inconvenient and expensive as possible.