March 8, 1996

The New York law that allows communities to know if sex offenders are in their midst has been blocked by a judge pending a hearing into its constitutionality. The judge said he wanted to prevent the "irreparable harm" releasing such information would do until constitutional challenges could be heard. Article, page B6.

A man wearing a baseball cap with a State Police emblem pulled over two cars in separate incidents last month in Denville and Maplewood and claimed he was an undercover officer searching for narcotics, the Morris County Prosecutor's office said yesterday. The man also stole $100 in cash from a Rockaway gas station, after he said he was investigating credit card fraud, Lieut. Christopher D. Linne said. Witnesses said the man was driving a Ford Thunderbird, but all the unmarked cars used by the state police are Chevrolet Caprices, Lieutenant Linne said.

A quirk in the calendar, some good weather and a nation of shoppers who decided they could not live another day without a new shirt or scarf combined to lift retail sales in February. But the rebound, after months of low numbers, does not necessarily indicate that the retail industry is back with a vengeance. The Goldman, Sachs same-store sales index, which compares stores open at least a year, rose 4.9 percent in February, compared with a 3.5 percent rise a year ago. It was the strongest gain since January 1995.

An 8-year-old boy who was charged with setting a Christmas Eve fire that resulted in a man's death will be monitored for six months and required to enroll in a fire-prevention program, Edward DeFazio, first assistant prosecutor for Hudson County, said yesterday. The boy was accused of igniting the fire at his grandmother's house while he was playing with a lighter. The woman's companion, Edward Thomas, 68, died in the blaze. The child's lawyer, Cynthia Jackson, denied that the fire was deliberately set and said the boy would return to Kentucky to live with his mother.

Entering Right-to-Die Fray