6 Million Gallon Oil Leak in Top State News

As Department of Environmental Protection officials continued to downplay health risks, and PBF Energy revised down the initial spill size estimates, at the Paulsboro refinery Thursday.

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During a speech Thursday night, Newark Councilman Ras Baraka issued a call to action to his constituents and also laid out an ambitious agenda that includes having the city  from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

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Four children and their grandmother perished in a raging house fire in South Plainfield early Thursday morning that one fire official called the worst he had ever witnessed. Four others, including an 8-year-old in critical condition, were being treated for injuries at area hospitals, Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan said. [NJ.com]

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The New Jersey Turnpike Authority and Ocean County are moving forward on plans to  and the roads below at three points in Brick and Toms River. The work is part of the Garden State Parkway Shoulder Restoration and Widening Program. 

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Gov. Chris Christie's new budget is based on an optimistic economic projection and leaves New Jersey with a "limited financial cushion" in case those estimates fall short, according to a report issued Friday by a major Wall Street ratings agency. Standard and Poor's review of the $32.1 billion budget  Christie proposed Tuesday credits the governor for increasing funding to the pension system, but then faults him for funding the system at less than 30 percent of what actuaries call for. [NorthJersey.com]

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An activist who has  at Delbarton School says he's called on Gov. Chris Christie for help addressing the allegations, but gotten no reply. Patrick Marker wrote a notarized letter to Christie, himself a parent of Delbarton students, requesting the governor take action regarding Delbarton and its sponsor, St. Mary's Abbey.

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Pop idol Taylor Swift has accepted the offer of a date from Kevin McGuire, a Stratford teenager who's battling cancer. But the singer says she can't attend McGuire's prom at Sterling High School, so she's invited him to a country-music awards show instead. [Asbury Park Press]

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A proposal to  from $7.25 an hour to $8.50 an hour advanced in a New Jersey Assembly committee on Thursday, when it passed by a 6-2 vote. Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) sponsored the bill.

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Officials in three states traded accusations over who knew what about a secret 2007 New York Police Department operation that monitored and catalogued Muslim neighborhoods throughout New Jersey's largest city. The operation resulted in a 60-page NYPD report, released by The Associated Press this week, containing photographs and notes about every mosque and Muslim business in Newark, just west of Manhattan. [AP, via Huffington Post]

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A 26-year old Fort Lee man was charged with first-degree murder in the hit-and-run death of his girlfriend  which occurred outside the  Fort Lee community center Monday when he allegedly struck her with his vehicle and then drove over her multiple times.