WKNJ Newscast

March 7, 2011
Michelle Illg

Good afternoon, it’s Monday, March 7, 2011 at _____________ o’clock and you’re listening to 90.3

WKNJ-FM, Union, New Jersey, and I’m _____________ with the news.

In Local News…

There’s a manhunt underway in Hudson County for a 21-year-old Rondell Jones of Jersey City.

Authorities say he shot and killed another 21-year-old man from Newark at about 1a.m. on Saturday.

The county Prosecutor’s Office issued an arrest warrant for Jones, who’s charged with shooting Eric

Thomas multiple times in the back after the victim left a Jersey City house party. It was discovered

that a friend of Jones’ had had a dispute with Thomas during this party. Jones shot him with a semi-

automatic pistol as he quote ran for his life quote. Jones had spent just over a year in the Garden State

Youth Correctional Facility for unlawful possession of a handgun and conspiracy for drug dealing,

having been paroled on January 24.

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The Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, is coming under new attack from people speaking out

against the deportation of individuals in same-sex marriages. Venezuelan immigrant Henry Valendia

is among the leaders of this protest. Valendia has been legally married to his partner, Princeton

graduate student Josh Vandiver, since 2006 but is unable to obtain a spouse visa. This means same-

sex partners cannot sponsor their spouses for immigration, and therefore, many are facing

deportation. Although the law has been declared unconstitutional in the opinion of the President and

a federal court judge, Congress is not expected to be able to challenge or repeal it by Valendia’s

deportation hearing on May 6. He and his husband plan to be the first couple to appeal to the federal

courts for permission to remain in the country until the issue of DOMA is resolved. Valendia and

Vandiver have been garnering throngs of support and little opposition on campus and online, in what

they see as a stand for love and equality.

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In National News…

With so many individual Middle Eastern nations experiencing crisis and dissent, the Obama

administration is now shifting its focus and striving to help longtime U.S. allies remain in power so

long as they are willing to reform. This new strategy is being called quote regime alteration quote,

and its goal is to encourage protestors to work with the existing governments towards positive change

instead of demanding immediate revolutions which could throw entire countries into complete

turmoil. The approach is now being attempted in Bahrain, Morocco, and Yemen. The administration

was criticized for its handling of the Libyan and Egyptian situations. In Egypt they had first

supported President Mubarak and then those calling for his ouster. But they insist that their goal is

always to support the rulers while asking them to cooperate with their people, make democratic

reforms, and maintain non-violence. Late last month Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa [HA-

MAHD BIN EESA AL-KALEEFA] had warned that if the U.S. did not back him 100% and his

government fell, America would lose a critical ally and the tiny country could face trouble from Iran

and Saudi Arabia. On February 27th King Khalifa as well as the Moroccan King received declarations

of support from the U.S., but they’re not supporting anyone unconditionally. Preserving alliances is

their second priority after avoiding violence. If the governments fail to satisfy the people with quick

progress or use violent crackdowns and unrestrained security forces on peaceful protestors, they

won’t be able to count on the American administration’s backing.

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A federal judge in New Orleans ordered the government to issue seven deep-water oil drilling

permits within 30 days, and now the Obama administration is saying that if forced to rush through its

normally slow procedure, it may have to reject all seven applications. The Interior Department called

the applications quote flawed or incomplete quote, and the government is now appealing Judge

Feldman’s mid-February ruling while asking him to stay his order. Typically, federal regulators and

oil companies take more time to negotiate. But Republicans are growing tired of the administration’s

delays on issuing permits for offshore drilling because oil and gasoline prices are on the rise again.

One new deep-water drilling permit was very recently issued, the first since the Deepwater Horizon

disaster last April. The regulators are concerned about safety and the ability to control a deep-water

spill. Additionally, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board is urging federal investigators to continue safety-

testing the controls of the blowout preventer which failed to stop the disaster from occurring.
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Unfortunately, ineffective equipment can prove very expensive indeed. A simple malfunction has

cost NASA 424-million-dollars and a good opportunity to get cracking on studying solar radiation

and the tiny atmospheric particles known as aerosols. The satellite Glory was launched, intending to

go on a 3-year mission to try to gauge the sun’s effect on climate change and analyze aerosols, most

of which are naturally occurring but which can also be derived from fossil fuels. Sadly, instead of

fulfilling this observatory mission, Glory and the Taurus XL rocket carrying it are now expected to

be floating around someplace in the Pacific Ocean near Antarctica. The rocket lifted off early Sunday

morning from California, but the satellite’s protective covering failed to open to release it shortly

after launch, which meant Glory didn’t have enough velocity to reach orbit. The same problem had

occurred in 2009 to the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, which was also carried by a Taurus rocket and

was supposed to study global warming. Both spacecraft likely fell near the same spot. NASA paid

the company that launched Glory 54-million-dollars and another Taurus rocket launch is set for 2013,

though they’ve now got time to change vehicles should it turn out to be unreliable. Six out of nine

total launches of the Taurus rocket have been successful.

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In International News…

Going back to Bahrain, the big newsmaker this week, there were over one-hundred-thousand

protestors in the capital city of Manama on Friday, calling for the kingdom’s ruling al-Khalifa [AL-

KA-LEEF-A] family to step down. Organized by opposition parties, they demanded either a

transition to a constitutional monarchy and dissolution of the government or the elimination of the

monarchy entirely. Protests began breaking out on Valentine’s Day and since then seven people have

been killed. But last Thursday saw the first actual violence between majority Shiite [SHEE-ITE]

Muslims and the Sunnis [SOO-NEEZ], which took place between a group of native Shiites and

nonnative Sunnis. The two groups are attempting to remain united in their pursuit of a changed

government, but some of the pro-government protestors led by Sunnis are growing critical of the

Shiite’s antigovernment activists and the effect they’re having on the country’s economy. Bahrain’s

Crown Prince says he’s determined to prevent sectarianism with national dialogue involving all parts

of their society. Over the past week the government tried to appease the demonstrators with housing

cost reductions, the release of over 300 political prisoners, and a cabinet reshuffle. But the

antigovernment campaign is still looking for more and better reforms.

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21-year-old German resident Arid Uka [AREED YUKA] was arrested and confessed to the murder

of two U.S. airmen heading to Afghanistan at the Frankfurt Airport. The Kosovo-born Uka’s actions

were motivated by a desire to halt the war in Afghanistan and he claimed to have watched an online

video in which American soldiers raided a home and raped a girl. He brought a pistol and two knives

to the airport and found a group of 15 U.S. airmen belonging to a military police team and wearing

civilian clothes. Uka began a conversation by asking 25-year-old Nicholas Alden for a cigarette.

Once he knew the men were destined for Afghanistan, he shot Alden in the back of the head as the

airman boarded his bus. Uka then boarded and also killed 21-year-old bus driver Zachary

Cuddeback. He’s accused of seriously wounding two other soldiers as well. A prosecutor said Uka’s

gun jammed before he could shoot a fifth airman, who helped the German police capture him.

Although Uka had online contact with Islamist radicals in Germany through such sites as Facebook,

authorities don’t believe that he belongs to any known terrorist groups. He recently started working

at the airport as a letter sorter for the German postal service and was described as shy, quiet, with few

friends and no radical tendencies until lately.

More news, sports, and weather coming up………

(play PSA #1 here.)

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In Sports…

In Major League Baseball, the Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago White Sox 8 to 3 on Saturday in

the Cactus League.

For the Grapefruit League, the match-up between the Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles ended

in a tie, each team scoring 4 points.

In an incredibly close basketball game, the New Jersey Nets won with 137, defeating the Toronto

Raptors by a mere point.

A slightly more decisive victory was claimed by the Washington Wizards with 103 over the

Minnesota Timberwolves at 96.

Also on Saturday for hockey, the New York Islanders took down the St Louis Blues 5 to 2.

The Philadelphia Flyers went up against the Buffalo Sabres and lost, 5 to 3.
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The Texas Rangers’ pitcher Neftali Feliz [NEF-TAH-LEE FALE-EEZ] suffered a contusion

yesterday after being hit on his left shin by a line drive off of Craig Gentry’s bat during his throwing

session. He was able to walk and there was no break to be found in the preliminary X-ray, but now

it’s unsure what this injury will do to the rest of Feliz’s week. He was supposed to be pitching on

Wednesday. His manager Ron Washington hopes this doesn’t turn out to be serious, acknowledging

that quote pitchers get hit in the shin all the time quote.
Your WKNJ hourly weather update …

Today’s partly cloudy with a high of 48 degrees, and humidity at 41 percent. Tonight should be

mainly clear with an overnight low of 28. So it’s a relatively nice day out there; try to enjoy it, things

have cleared up from yesterday’s nonstop showers, but they’ll probably still be muddy for a while, so

watch your shoes. Tomorrow, expect partly cloudiness with basically the same temperatures as

today, maybe a couple degrees less, but also less wind. Tomorrow night, still looking at partly

cloudy, with an anticipated low of about 31 degrees.

Tune in later for meteorology reports on 90.3 FM.

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In Entertainment…

The weekend’s box office results saw Rango the animated western starring a chameleon with the

voice of Johnny Depp, beating out the other three new releases by a long shot. It earned 38-million-

dollars in comparison to The Adjustment Bureau’s 20-point-nine, Beastly’s 10-point-one, and the 3-

point-five brought in by the retro 80s flick Take Me Home Tonight. So far Rango has the highest

opening weekend gross of the year, but it’s still not fantastic, considering that the film cost

Paramount between 135 and 150-million-dollars to make. Without the advantage of 3-D ticket sales,

Rango’s performance was weaker than expected and it must now hope for a good box office run and

positive word-of-mouth. Reactions have been mixed, with an increased audience from Friday to

Saturday, but a low CinemaScore of C+. Audiences rated the poorly critically reviewed fantasy film

Beastly a B+, sci-fi romance The Adjustment Bureau a B, and Take Me Home Tonight a C. On the

whole, the weekend was mediocre at best for new movies.

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That’s it for your news. You’re listening to 90.3 WKNJ-FM, Union, New Jersey. I’m

_____________________ and we’ll be right back after this.

Your news writer for the day has been Michelle Illg.

(Play PSA #2 here.)

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