Military Bases

Open-space preservation groups are celebrating the imminent completion of a $7.5 million deal to conserve 1,800 acres in Jackson Township, one of the fastest-growing areas of New Jersey. The area is in the Pinelands and encompasses the headwaters of the Toms River, which drains into ailing Barnegat Bay. And it is just beyond the end of a runway increasingly being used for combat training at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, Ocean County's largest employer. As such, the deal touches on many of the state's major issues - sprawl, water quality, the economy, and military readiness.

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a crackdown Wednesday on Jewish extremists believed to be responsible for a wave of violence and vandalism against Israeli soldiers and Muslim places of worship. The move followed the arrest of suspected extremists and an attack on a disused mosque. Netanyahu, in a statement, said he had accepted recommendations made by his cabinet ministers to stop the disturbances. The measures empower soldiers to make arrests, ban extremists from contentious areas, and enable military-court trials of rioters.

Tariq is an Iraqi interpreter whose last name is being withheld for his safety I am an Iraqi citizen who worked as an interpreter with the U.S. military for two years. It was an honor to serve, and I did it because I believed that bringing freedom to Iraq required brave people to stand up and try to make a difference. Now, as a result of my service, I find myself in a dangerous limbo. Before 2003, I thought of the United States primarily as the home of Bruce Willis, Hollywood, and Las Vegas.

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria - Suicide bombers attacked a military base, a car bomb exploded outside a barracks and explosives detonated Friday around northeast Nigeria, a region under siege from a radical Muslim sect, officials said. While casualties weren't immediately clear, one blast struck outside a school where parents had arrived to pick up the children. There was no claim of responsibility, but blame immediately fell to the sect known as Boko Haram, which has staged targeted assassinations and bombings in the region, killing more than 240 people this year across Nigeria's Muslim north, according to a count by the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON - With the death of Moammar Gadhafi, Libya's de facto leaders now face the challenge of preserving the fragile unity they enjoyed while the deposed dictator was on the run as they begin transforming their war-battered nation into a democracy after 42 years of tyrannical one-man rule. The task is daunting. The National Transitional Council, the top revolutionary authority, confronts a vast array of problems: bringing the ragtag militias that ousted Gadhafi under control; recovering looted arms; halting revenge attacks on Gadhafi loyalists; caring for thousands of casualties; restoring oil production; repairing war damage; and keeping a lid on regional tensions and radical Islam.

RALEIGH, N.C. - North Carolina is losing out on a congressional seat and future tax dollars because so many of its military personnel were deployed during the U.S. Census and counted in population totals for other states, according to an Associated Press review. The census counts most troops at the base where they live and work. But for personnel who are deployed overseas, the government tallies them for their home state - often where the service member grew up or has family. For example, a soldier based at Fort Bragg in North Carolina could list his or her home as being in Oklahoma because that's where he or she was raised.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Food services giant Sodexo has agreed to pay $20 million to settle claims that it overcharged 21 New York school districts and the State University of New York over a five-year span. An investigation by state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office found that the France-based company breached a food and vendor services contract by failing to pass on rebates from suppliers to SUNY campuses and 21 public schools across the state between 2004 and 2009. The settlement, part of an ongoing industrywide investigation, was unsealed in federal court in Massachusetts on Tuesday.

Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, where hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on military upgrades, anticipates an additional $10 million investment that would improve military training and create dozens of jobs. The money, contained in the National Defense Authorization Act, would fund a state-of-the-art machine-gun range for Army, Army Reserve, and National Guard soldiers as well as Navy and Air Force personnel. About 10,000 servicemen and servicewomen train at the joint base each year and need practice to qualify on light and heavy machine guns.

PRESIDENT Obama ran on a campaign of change, but the way things run meant that wasn't going to happen once he got elected. Well, after 11 months in office, we are now finding out what his changes are and how things really work in Washington. We no longer have backroom deals to get bills passed. They are now blatant about the deals, bribing the senator from Nebraska with no state hikes in the payments for Medicare, the senator from Louisiana gets a promise of $300 million for her state and more just to vote for this health-care bill.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - The air smelled of diesel fumes, and the deafening whine of jet engines penetrated the cool, damp night air at Toussaint L'Ouverture Airport as the C-17 plane out of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst pulled up to the terminal to wait in line with four other planes to disgorge its cargo of instant meals and military vehicles. The flight out of the South Jersey base was just one small part of a massive relief effort that has planes flying in and out of the only airport in Haiti around the clock.