ASBURY PARK PRESS

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TUESDAY 06.21.16

Lucky day
at track
Cash-strapped
Monmouth Park gets
boost from big
Fathers Day crowd.
Sports, 1C

NIGHTCLUB ATTACK

Transcripts
are released;
Senate nixes
gun control
Shooter told negotiator he had bombs,
pledged himself to ISIS. Stories, 1-2B

ORLANDO POLICE DEPARTMENT

I am in
Orlando,
and I did the
shootings

Committee
gives OK for
controversial
judges tenure
MIKE DAVIS @BYMIKEDAVIS

TRENTON - State Superior Court Judge Paul Escandons path toward tenure got a boost from the Senate
Judiciary Committee on Monday, despite tough questions about his term on the bench in Monmouth County.
The committee approved Escandons nomination,
made last month by Gov. Chris Christie, by a 7-4 vote. If
the full Senate follows suit, the jurist will have a job on
the bench until the mandatory retirement age of 70.
Escandon, 51, collected a $170,381 salary in the job
last year.
During the hearing on Escandons appointment, legislators questions focused on a case in which Escandon
barred former Marlboro resident Patricia Madison
from moving out of her Marlboro home to North Jersey.
Madison had sought the move so she could attend Fairleigh Dickinson University and seek jobs in New York
City.
When she did so anyway, Escandon reversed an earlier order and awarded custody of Madisons three children to her ex-husband, Nicholas Pisciotti, a reputed
mobster who confessed to a killing, testified against
See JUDGE, Page 10A

Omar Mateen, 29, is the gunman in

the Orlando nightclub shooting.
SOURCE: HERITAGE TOWN CENTER REDEVELOPMENT PLAN

An artist's rendering depicts a vision for Manchester's

Heritage Town Center.

RESTRICTIONS
ADVANCE IN N.J.

State bill
would thwart
governors
plan to relax
requirements
for gun-carry
permits

ANDREW J. GOUDSWARD @AGOUDSWARD

AND MIKE DAVIS @BYMIKEDAVIS

TRENTON - While partisan gun measures stalled anew

in Washington, state lawmakers in Trenton pushed back
against Gov. Chris Christie on gun control, advancing a
measure that advocates say would bar the governor from
loosening New Jersey firearms laws.
In Trenton, the Senate Law and Public Safety Committee, by a vote of 3-2, approved a bill that would block new
Christie-backed guidelines for obtaining a handgun-carrying permit from taking effect. Hours later, the U.S. Senate,
responding to last weeks shooting massacre in Orlando,
Florida, blocked two Republican and two Democratic gun
bills the best Washington could muster in the wake of
the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.
In Trenton, however, the legislative gun fight remained
alive.
Under state law, gun-carry applicants are only permitted to carry a handgun if they can prove evidence of actual
specific threats or specific attacks against them. A State
See GUN, Page 8A

Homeowners relieved; renters squeezed

MICHAEL L. DIAMOND @MDIAMONDAPP
AND ALEXANDRIA CAROLAN @ALEXHCAROLAN

With rent of $1,160 a month in Asbury Park taking

up most of her familys income, Susan Aquino began
to search for a new apartment that would give her
some breathing room.
The hunt didnt last very long.
We were looking for two bedrooms, and they
were $1,500 to $1,700 between October and
March, said Aquino, 43.
Aquino is part of a troublesome story playing out
across New Jersey and the U.S. in the 10 years since
the housing bubble peaked and then burst in a ruinous
crash: As real estate has climbed back from that
ADVICE
CLASSIFIED
COMICS
HEALTHY LIVING
LOCAL

8D
9D
7D
1D
3A

OBITUARIES
OPINION
SPORTS
TECH TUESDAY
WEATHER

crash, homeowners are thriving while renters are

struggling.
For many longtime owners, times are good.
Theyre enjoying the benefits of growing equity and
reduced mortgage payments from ultra-low interest
rates.
But for Americas growing class of renters, surging costs, stagnant pay and rising home values have
made it next to impossible to save enough to buy.
The possible consequences are bleak for a state already grappling with economic inequality: Whatever
wealth most Americans possess mainly comes from
home equity. An enlarged renter class means fewer
See HOUSING, Page 8A
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VOLUME 137
NUMBER 148
SINCE 1879

Manchester
mayor vetoes
redevelopment
AMANDA OGLESBY @OGLESBYAPP

MANCHESTER - Mayor Kenneth Palmer, citing the

size of the project, has vetoed an ordinance that would
have paved the way to transform a former mining quarry into a sprawling development featuring shops and
thousands of homes.
The next move isnt entirely clear.
Hovsons Inc., the Neptune-based company that
owns thousands of acres of the former Heritage Minerals mining quarry, south of routes 37 and 70, envisions
an urban-style downtown with multistory buildings and
shops surrounded by condos, townhouses and other
homes.
The new development had it received all necessary state, local and county approvals could have
added more than 6,500 homes to this township of 43,000
residents and increased its population by an estimated
15,000 people.
We will continue to explore plans that work for
Manchester, Palmer wrote in a Facebook message to a
See VETO, Page 8A