Volume LXXI, Number 51
People & Stories Program Bridges Urban/Suburban Divide . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Camp Bow Wow Sponsors Training of a Service Dog . . . . . . . . . 7 Annual Palmer Square Menorah Lighting . . . . 12 New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Presents Messiah . . . . . . . . . . 16 Stars Fell on Alabama: The Twin Peaks Connection . . . . . . . . 21 PU Men’s Hoops Snaps Its 3-Game Losing Streak . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Gorelenkov Stars as PDS Boys’ Hockey Edges Delbarton . . . . . . . . . 28
PHS Junior Emily Becker Leads Youth Swim Initiative . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 23 Cinema . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Classified Ads. . . . . . . 32 Clubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Music/Theater . . . . . . 16 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 31 Police Blotter . . . . . . . . 8 Real Estate . . . . . . . . 32 Religion . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . . 6
www.towntopics.com
Fracking Impacts Infant Health, New Study Reveals
A recent study, co-authored by Princeton University Economics Professor Janet Currie, reveals significant increases of health risks for infants born to mothers living within two miles of a hydraulic fracturing (fracking) site. “Given the growing evidence that pollution affects babies in utero, it should not be surprising that fracking, which is a heavy industrial activity, has negative effects on infants,” said Currie, who directs the Center for Health and Wellbeing at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. “These results suggest that hydraulic fracturing does have an impact on our health,” Currie continued, “though the good news is that this is only at a highly localized level.” Currie and her research team compared infants born to mothers living near a drilling site to those living farther away, before and after fracking began at that site, using records from more than 1.1 million births across Pennsylvania from 2004 to 2013. Babies born within 0.6 miles of a site were 25 percent more likely to have a low birth weight, under five and a half pounds. For babies born to mothers living between half a mile and two miles, the risk of low birth weight decreased by about half to a third, and infants born to mothers living beyond two miles experienced little to no impact to their health. About 29,000 out of the four million babies born in the United States each year are born within about a half mile of a fracking site. Low birth weights have been correlated with greater risk of infant mortality, ADHD, asthma, lower test scores, poorer performance in school, and lower lifetime earnings. The development of fracking, according to Currie and her co-authors Michael Greenstone and Katherine Meckel, is considered to be the biggest change to the global energy production system in the last half century, boosting local economies, decreasing air pollution by displacing coal in electricity generation, and increasing prospects for U.S. energy self-sufficiency But several communities have banned fracking because of unresolved concerns about health impacts. “As local and state policymakers Continued on Page 8
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Wednesday, December 20, 2017
State Committee Approves Controversial Trenton Project New Jersey’s State Leasing and Space Utilization Committee Monday approved a controversial state office buildings project in Trenton that has been vigorously opposed by some city residents, business owners, and some members of the local government. The three-member committee voted unanimously to allow the development plan for state office buildings, which would tear down two existing government buildings and relocate them outside of the central downtown area. Representing six opponents of the plan including Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, former Trenton Mayor Douglas Palmer, and city realtor Anne LaBate, attorney Bruce Afran filed a lawsuit Monday afternoon against the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA) and Governor Chris Christie, charging the plan violates the New Jersey constitution because it doesn’t allow voters to have a say. “The governor is pushing through a bond issue to build two new office buildings for the departments of health and taxation,” Afran said just before filing the papers. “Instead of putting the bond on the general election ballot, they have decided to run them through the EDA that normally doesn’t require a public ballot for its bonds.”
Under the constitution, new debt in bonds must be authorized by voters. “The EDA can do this only when the money to pay the bond doesn’t have to be paid by taxpayers. It must go on the public ballot,” Afran said. “Payment of the bond funds is going to come through lease payments. It is a device to prevent the public from being able to vote on the bonds.” Christie first presented his plan in September 2016 to tear down the Taxation building on Barrack Street and the Health
and Agriculture building on South Warren Street to make room for redevelopment. But the State House Commission voted last month to hold off on the plan until newly-elected governor Phil Murphy takes office in January. Opponents say that constructing two suburban-style office buildings on state land, surrounded by parking lots and away from mass transit and downtown restaurants and businesses, ignores tenets of good urban planning. Continued on Page 10
Coalition for Peace Action Holds Holiday Vigil, Program in Princeton The Princeton-based Coalition for Peace Action (CFPA) held a Candlelight Vigil for Diplomacy, Not War in Palmer Square last Thursday, followed by a Peace Potluck and a Peace Program at the Nassau Presbyterian Church. About 20 people braved the cold weather for the vigil, and more than 50 overall participated in the evening’s events. CFPA Executive Director the Rev. Bob Moore, who for 40 years has been organizing for peace full-time, expressed mixed feelings of hope and apprehension in the face of recent events. In particular,
he emphasized “momentum toward this war with North Korea,” citing experts who claim that the prospects of a nuclear war are “chillingly realistic.” Earlier last week, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had proposed direct talks with North Korea without preconditions, which Moore described as “a realistic posture” and ”a chance to de-escalate tensions and jumpstart the diplomatic process.” Tillerson’s proposal, however, was quickly countermanded by a tweet from President Donald Trump suggesting Continued on Page 10
KLEZMER MUSIC IN THE SQUARE: The Odessa Klezmer Band performed festive dance music in Palmer Square on Thursday evening at the annual lighting of the Menorah. The event also featured special guest speakers and refreshments including doughnuts, and latkes with applesauce. (Photo by Erica M. Cardenas)