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ASBURY PARK PRESS :: MONMOUTH EDITION

WEDNESDAY 04.01.15

High School
Baseball Preview:
Jackson Memorial looks to defend its
Group IV state championship
Sports, 1C

Peril
in the
Pines

9
DAYS
TO GO

WHAT
HAPPENS
WHEN A
FILM
FEST AND A
MUSIC FEST
COLLIDE?
DMC Squared film
to appear, followed
by

PHOTOS BY VINCENT DISALVIO/CORRESPONDENT

Ted Johnson (left) of the New Jersey Forest Fire Service and Jason Hoger of the Ocean County Parks Department enter an area
in Barnegat where a prescribed burn was taking place on March 25.

question-and-answer
session and

Warden: Late snow might raise forest fire risk

performance. 3A

AMANDA OGLESBY @OGLESBYAPP

BARNEGAT The flames crackled in the woods as Fire Warden Scott Knauer
looked up at the darkening clouds with worry. The state Forest Fire Service was
busy igniting 83 acres of Pine Barrens underbrush on the Barnegat-Waretown
border when the first raindrops fell onto Knauers upturned face.
The team of yellow-clad firefighters worked faster, using metal fuel cans to
spread the blaze quickly before the drizzle soaked the forest and ruined their
prescribed burn.
In a season already cut short by snow and bad weather, the rainfall which
arrived sooner than expected was more bad news for the state Forest Fire
Service.
Normally by this time, were done (with prescribed burning), Knauer said
last week. We havent even started.
And thats worrisome to Knauer and other members of the forest service. Prescribed burning which firefighters use to eliminate sections of the forests
ignitable underbrush is a key prevention tool against New Jerseys fierce forest fires.

Oceanfront
lot values
hinge on aid

To view a
photo
gallery,
scan the
QR code or
visit

TODD B. BATES @TODDBBATESAPP

APP.com

See FIRES, Page 15A

Oceanfront property values could plunge by up to 34

percent in New Jersey if federal subsidies for beach replenishment vanished, according to a new study.
If that happened tomorrow, (there) would be a pretty severe loss of value up and down the coastline, said
Dylan McNamara, study lead author and associate professor of physics and physical oceanography at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington.
And that would have a ripple effect, increasing property taxes and affecting the local economy, McNamara
said.
See PROPERTY, Page 8A

Its ironic that ... were all about

compensating people for losing their
view due to the beach nourishment
project.

A prescribed burn in progress adjacent to Pheasant Run homes in Barnegat Township.

JON K. MILLER,

STEVENS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Doctor: Babys eyes showed classic signs of child abuse

KATHLEEN HOPKINS @KHOPKINSAPP
FREEHOLD Pictures of injuries to 14-month-old
Mason Hess show signs of shaken-baby syndrome so
classic that one of them will be on the cover of an upcoming medical journal, a pediatric ophthalmologist
testified Tuesday at the trial of a baby sitter accused of
murdering the child.
This will be the cover photo, Dr. Alex Levin told a
jury at the trial of Michelle Heale, Masons regular baby sitter, who is charged with the childs murder and

with endangering his welfare.

Mason Hess, 14 months, had countless
Levin explained that the photograph, which was dishemorrhages in his eyes, said Dr. Alex Levin,
played on a giant screen in the courtroom of Superior
chief pediatric ophthalmologist at Wills Eye
Court Judge Francis J. Vernoia, depicted a classic
Hospital in Philadelphia. Michelle Heale, his
case of head trauma present in shaken babies and is
baby sitter, is on trial for his murder.
slated to appear on the cover of the American Academy
of Ophthalmologists journal.
Levin, who is chief of pediatric ophthalmology and This is a victim of abusive head trauma. I cant
ocular genetics at Wills Eye Hospital, described retinal think of another explanation.
DR. ALEX LEVIN, PEDIATRIC OPHTHALMOLOGIST

See TRIAL, Page 15A

OILS SLIDE CUT JOBS BY THOUSANDS ACROSS U.S. PAGE 1B

Charges
coming?

HOLE IN ONE
Readers tell us where to find
the best Shore bagels. TABLE, 1D
ADVICE
CLASSIFIED
COMICS
LOCAL
OBITUARIES

7D
1E
6D
3A
13A

OPINION
SPORTS
TABLE
WEATHER
YOUR MONEY

16A
1C
1D
8C
12A

VOLUME 136
NUMBER 78

Sources say
Menendez
case moves

forward. 7A

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