New Jersey

Angelo J. Errichetti, 84, a former Camden mayor and state senator who was South Jersey's premier Democratic power broker in the decade before his 1981 bribery conviction in the Abscam scandal, has died after a long illness. He had been living in Ventnor, N.J. During two mayoral terms, starting in 1973, he built a reputation as an unflagging booster for his hometown, where his father, a Neapolitan immigrant, stoked coal at the shipyard to feed seven children. Mr. Errichetti's efforts to revive Camden's moribund economy were said to occupy 12 hours on a typical day, yet he took on a second office simultaneously.

While orchestrating a recent Powerball pool, I made a colossal blunder. I bought the 100 tickets in New Jersey. If we had hit the jackpot, and had the only winning ticket, that move could have collectively cost the 40 of us millions of dollars. If you have a choice, better, much better, to buy your lottery tickets in Pennsylvania for two reasons: (1) It's one of the only states where jackpots won within its borders are free from state and local taxes (including Philadelphia's wage tax)

New Jersey saw the largest declines in gross gaming and tax revenues among the 22 states in which commercial casinos operated in 2012. Philadelphia remained the No. 1 racetrack-gaming market in the country last year, with $835.3 million in gross gaming revenue generated, led by Parx in Bensalem for the third consecutive year. And increasingly, patrons between ages 21 and 35 are frequenting casinos - about 39 percent of those surveyed for the first time - visiting nongambling amenities such as nightclubs and restaurants.

New Jersey expects to buy out 1,000 properties damaged by Hurricane Sandy, with the focus on purchasing entire streets or neighborhoods, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection. With $250 million in federal money allocated for the effort, DEP Commissioner Bob Martin faced repeated questions Monday from the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee during a hearing on the agency's proposed budget for fiscal year 2014. "What we're trying to do is buy out whole streets and whole neighborhoods.

TRENTON - In a Capitol where Democrats rule both legislative chambers, it's not unusual to see Senate President Stephen Sweeney, whose South Jersey district trends more conservative than some of its North Jersey counterparts, clash with the more left-leaning Assembly leadership. Yet political observers say they're stumped by Sweeney's opposition to a gun-control bill most of the state Democratic Party supports. Sweeney is refusing to let the Senate vote on a bill that would decrease magazine capacity limit in New Jersey to 10 bullets from the current 15. The Assembly passed a bill in February lowering the limit, but it wasn't among the dozen gun-control bills heard in Senate committee last week.

Powerball's jackpot is on a faster trajectory, and California could be the cause. Two weeks ago, the most populous state in the union joined Powerball, and immediately set a record, selling $8,408,180 million worth of tickets in its first three days. That's "an all-time record for any new Powerball member," according to a California Lottery news release. More sales mean faster growing jackpots. A week ago, the grand prize was $80 million, and the last six times that happened, five times it rose by the minimal increment, first to $90 million, then to $100 million.

NEWARK, N.J. - The location of the trees that Joyce Kilmer wrote were more lovely than any poem has long been in dispute, with a handful of towns from Massachusetts to Indiana claiming to have inspired the verse. But a New Jersey historian said he now has irrefutable proof that Kilmer was stirred by the woods of the Ramapo Valley when he wrote the well-known words, "I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree. " Alex Michelini, founder of the Joyce Kilmer Society in Mahwah, said Friday that a letter written in 1929 by Kilmer's widow, Aline, to a graduate student shows that "Trees" was written on Feb. 2, 1913, at the couple's former home in Mahwah.

WASHINGTON - How do you raise $1.9 million in three months? If you're Newark Mayor Cory Booker, you tap into a network of admirers that includes some of Hollywood's biggest producers, media moguls, and name-brand developers. Then you bring in Wolfgang Puck to cook. Ron Howard gave $5,000 to the Democrat's burgeoning 2014 Senate campaign. So did Rob Reiner. Executives from Disney and Warner Brothers donated. Ivanka Trump and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg contributed $5,200 apiece.

Question 1 Do you approve an amendment to the New Jersey Constitution, as agreed to by the Legislature, to allow contributions set by law to be taken from the salaries of Supreme Court Justices and Superior Court Judges for their employee benefits? (93% of the vote) Yes . . . 1,274,618 No . . . 774,121 Question 2 Do you approve the "Building Our Future Bond Act"? This bond act authorizes the State to issue bonds in the aggregate principal amount of $750 million to provide matching grants to New Jersey's colleges and universities.

In his inaugural, Gov. Corzine said he would "never settle for less than excellence. " What does that mean to you in terms of how the state operates? What should he do to ensure that fellow state leaders uphold that same standard? Share your ideas in essays of 250 words or fewer. E-mail us by Wednesday at sjvoices@phillynews.com, fax 856-779-3221, or write to The Inquirer, attn: Community Voices, 53 Haddonfield Rd., Suite 300, Cherry Hill, N.J. 08002. Please put "Corzine" in the subject line.

TRENTON - With its imposing, Victorian-era buildings and leafy, college-like campus, the Vineland Developmental Center was in its time a state-of-the-art institution for treating young women with complex mental and emotional disorders. At its peak in the late 1950s, just over 2,000 women lived at the center. Once there, often at the behest of families that no longer could care for them, they could expect to stay for life. No longer. Vineland and six other state institutions that care for about 2,252 people suffering from a spectrum of disorders commonly known as mental retardation are in the midst of massive change.

Angelo J. Errichetti, 84, a former Camden mayor and state senator who was South Jersey's premier Democratic power broker in the decade before his 1981 bribery conviction in the Abscam scandal, has died after a long illness. He had been living in Ventnor, N.J. During two mayoral terms, starting in 1973, he built a reputation as an unflagging booster for his hometown, where his father, a Neapolitan immigrant, stoked coal at the shipyard to feed seven children. Mr. Errichetti's efforts to revive Camden's moribund economy were said to occupy 12 hours on a typical day, yet he took on a second office simultaneously.

New Jersey's April unemployment rate dropped below 9 percent - to 8.7 percent - marking its lowest point in four years, the state's Department of Labor and Industry reported Thursday. A gain of 4,100 private-sector jobs offset a loss of 800 public-sector jobs, including scores of Camden police officers laid off last month when a county force took over policing the city. While New Jersey's rate has fallen, it still tops the nation's, which was 7.5 percent in April. To the Christie administration, the report, coupled with another showing better-than-expected increases in revenues from income, corporate, and sales taxes, points to an economy on the upward track.

THERE'S A FEELING you get, walking toward the Wildwood Boardwalk at night; an anticipation that hits you all at once when that wide, eclectic, electric expanse unfolds before you. There's nothing else quite like it in New Jersey, a tourist destination defined by first kisses, cotton candy and rock 'n' roll, muscle cars and muscle shirts, a mix of Northeast Philly, South Jersey, Quebec and everywhere in-between, all aglow in neon and wedged into...

Brittany Read remembers Lauren Regan as the coach who turned her into a goalie in seventh grade. "She saw something in me, and if it wasn't for her I don't know if I would have ever done it," said Read, a junior who is set to play goalie in college for the University of Louisville. Many Eastern girls' lacrosse players can tell similar stories about Regan, who coached most of team's juniors and seniors in youth lacrosse before coaching them in high school. Stories like Read's were the driving force behind the team's trip to Regan's home before this season.

WASHINGTON - How do you raise $1.9 million in three months? If you're Newark Mayor Cory Booker, you tap into a network of admirers that includes some of Hollywood's biggest producers, media moguls, and name-brand developers. Then you bring in Wolfgang Puck to cook. Ron Howard gave $5,000 to the Democrat's burgeoning 2014 Senate campaign. So did Rob Reiner. Executives from Disney and Warner Brothers donated. Ivanka Trump and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg contributed $5,200 apiece.

Canadian astronaut Cmdr. Chris Hadfield has tweeted another fun photo from space showing Pennsylvania, New Jersey and neighboring states from a heavenly perspective. "Chesapeake to Cape Cod to Lake Huron - in a glance, so much history, geology and geography," @Cmdr_Hadfield posted on Twitter. In the shot from the International Space Station, the white sands of the Jersey Shore's barrier islands are clearly visible and the Delaware River seems to disappear as it narrows north of Trenton.

NEWARK, N.J. - The location of the trees that Joyce Kilmer wrote were more lovely than any poem has long been in dispute, with a handful of towns from Massachusetts to Indiana claiming to have inspired the verse. But a New Jersey historian said he now has irrefutable proof that Kilmer was stirred by the woods of the Ramapo Valley when he wrote the well-known words, "I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree. " Alex Michelini, founder of the Joyce Kilmer Society in Mahwah, said Friday that a letter written in 1929 by Kilmer's widow, Aline, to a graduate student shows that "Trees" was written on Feb. 2, 1913, at the couple's former home in Mahwah.

Delaware County police have searched the two homes and work truck of the estranged husband of a Collingdale woman who has been missing for almost three weeks. Melissa Ortiz-Rodriguez, 30, had planned a weekend visit with friends in Newark, N.J., on April 19 but failed to show up. Her estranged husband, Jose Luis Rodriguez, reported her missing four days later after she did not show up for a new job and failed to pick up their two daughters, ages 7 and 11, from school. Rodriguez told investigators that she usually took public transportation when visiting friends.

TRENTON - State Sen. Barbara Buono's campaign fund-raising in her bid to be governor lags so badly that without a major push in the next four weeks, she risks not maximizing state matching money in her run against Gov. Christie. On Monday, Buono, a Democrat, reported having raised "just under" $1.9 million, including $1.1 million in matching funds. To be able to spend the maximum of $5.6 million on the June 4 primary, she must bring get close to $1.2 million more from donors.