Many different species of mussels have been found in the Delaware River, casting a little doubt on speculation that the waterway is completely filthy. Years of researching 40 different streams across Pennsylvania, until now, only revealed one species: The common eastern elliptio. Those were found in Perkiomen, Brandywine and Ridley creeks.

The specimen were found between Chester, PA and Trenton, a highly populated stretch of the river. Two of the seven new species found were thought to have been long eradicated from PA and NJ – those two were identified as the alewife floater and the tidewater mucket.

Mussels are vital to the ecosystem due to their ability to filter out contaminants and bacteria from the water – kind of like a waste water treatment plant. They are also known for stabilizing stream beds.

Reasons for these finds, which were made by a joint effort with the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, are numerous. One reason given is better breeding conditions due to cleaner water in the Delaware. The discovery of the new species and other species in other areas of the river prove that the river is slowly becoming cleaner and becoming more conducive to aquatic breeding.

Fortunately, these are vital mussels to the ecosystem – not the invasive ones like zebra mussels that bring hell to plumbing systems by clogging pipes and other bring other unsavory traits like disrupting the aquatic food chain.

High winds associated with a storm are to blame for damaging eight small engine planes at Trenton-Mercer Airport in Ewing Township Tuesday night.

The winds came as a squall line blew through the area anywhere from 4 to 4:30 am Wednesday, topping off at 60 mph as measured by the airport. The National Weather Service said there were no tornadoes, however, most of the chaos can be blamed on a microburst -  a relatively rare event in which a column of air shoots down from a storm and creates straight-line winds.

The most notable damage came to one plane that was ripped off of  its moorings and sent flying over the fence of the airport and into the flight school’s parking lot. Three others were completely flipped over. Elsewhere at the airport, a hangar had its roof torn completely off, and many of the damaged planes were too wounded to be tied down and were stashed in hangars.

Elsewhere in the state, there have been 11,000 reported power outages and sporadic reports of damage.

Earlier this month, there was a disturbance in which many students were booted from a hockey game between The College of New Jersey and Rider University at The Lawrenceville School’s rink. The idiocy spilled out into the parking lot and was eventually settled. Police are now saying the buffoons were drinking Four Loko – a controversial drink that mixes alcohol and caffeine.

The drink is widely known as “blackout in a can” – it has a high sugar content and is 12 percent alcohol by volume. The sugary taste makes it more conducive to be consumed in epic quantities, while the caffeine content has been known to make people more alert and unable to pass out – making them drink more.

The Lawrenceville campus bans all alcohol and is now working to explicitly ban Four Loko. On a wider scale, Michigan, Oklahoma and Wisconsin have outright banned the drink, which has received some criticism from residents. The College of New Jersey allows responsible alcohol consumption, and has no plans to ban the insidious drink.

The makers of Four Loko deny the exaggerated effects of their drink, but agree with keeping the rowdy stuff away from minors.

A New Jersey State prison guard who mercilessly and seemingly needlessly beat an inmate to within an inch of death in July remains suspended, and new details have emerged.

The inmate he beat, 45 year old Bradley Peterson, is originally from the Rhode Island prison system. While he was cuffed and shackled, corrections officer Kevin Newsom repeatedly hit him over the head with a metal baton. After the beating, he allegedly ordered those under him on the chain of command to keep it a secret and keep it out of reports.

For this, Newsom was charged with aggravated assault and official misconduct, and was subsequently suspended without pay from the job which pays better than $91,000 a year.

Lt. Stephen Alaimo, Newsom’s superior, was charged with official misconduct and suspended with pay – however a hearing  to determine whether or not he gets to enjoy his suspension with an income will be held within the next two days. He was charged because he failed to report the wrongdoing.

Prosecutors were informed of the attack in August by the Special Investigations Division, but no details have been given as to how they learned of it.

The New Jersey Dept. of Transportation is trying to find the bonehead that keeps dumping deer carcasses all along interstates in Morris County. In six  months time, three huge piles of rotting deer were found on Interstate 287 and 280. They were found stacked into four or five piles of two to 10 one on top of another in a wooded area on 280 last week.  Just last weekend, another pile of revolting deer corpses was dumped near Montville on 287, and another pile that was cast away on 287 near Pequannock in July. Needless to say, authorities and the cleanup crews are getting pretty sick of the interminable messes. One notion is that state crews like the Department of Transportation dump the deer, but that’s unlikely because state crews have to clean the gory, smelly heaps. If you have any information regarding this stench of idiocy, call the local authorities.

A Trenton man was carjacked and held in a basement early Monday for two hours before he found a way to escape his abductors.

The 25 year old was driving a loaned truck on Hamilton Avenue at 12 am when two masked men, armed with a pistol and a shotgun, forced him back into the truck and took the wheel. After putting a bag over his head, they stopped at a house where they taped his wrists and feet, took his valuables and left him there.

He somehow managed to escape from the bondage and flee out the kitchen door, where he took refuge at his girlfriend’s house. From there, he noticed the men driving around looking for him outside in his loaned truck.

The next day at 6 pm, police found the truck empty and abandoned on Tyler Street.

Police think the victim’s criminal past may have something to do with why he was a target for the men. If you have any information pertaining to this case, you are urged to call police at (609) 989-4170, or the Confidential Tip Line at (609) 989-3663.

Two men are being heralded as heroes after rescuing an old woman from a smoldering car.

The elderly woman was seen driving erratically by Deshawn Feliciano of Lawrence while en route to the Ewing Diner this afternoon. She narrowly missed hitting a man pushing a stroller and nailed another car before coming to rest on a telephone pole. While the car was smoldering, Feliciano and another man decided to go into the flames and rescue her.

After reaching into the flames and grabbing the woman, they set her down on the median and extinguished the flames with an extinguisher they got from Valero.

After their efforts, paramedics arrived and transported her to a hospital where she was treated for a cut on her leg and other undisclosed injuries. Her name was not given, nor was the name of the other man who pitched in. The driver of the other car had a rattled head, but she was in good health nonetheless.

A man was gunned down while sitting in his truck on Brunswick Ave. Tuesday afternoon – in front of passing schoolchildren.

Reports say that at 3 pm, a man was idly sitting in his truck when a man attempted to rob him. He was eventually shot by the attacker and rushed to a local hospital, where he is in stable condition.

Elsewhere, a 19 year old man was shot three times reportedly while he was driving. At first, the man and a nurse thought they were wounds from a BB gun, but the tough man was shot by small caliber bullets. He was driving on Grand Street when he heard shots ring out. He got out of his car and ran away, in the process getting shot three times.

And in another case of senseless violence, a man who turned 33 today escaped certain death as a man forced him into his own van and pointed a gun at him. The victim bolted out the passenger door and narrowly escaped getting shot as the assailant took off running.

All of these cases are currently under investigation and none of the antagonists have been apprehended.

Justice was served to one of the suspects in the murder of 84 year old Tuskegee Airman Jerry Eure.

Anthony Bethea, 19, was sentenced to 50 years in prison for  killing the war hero in his West Ward home in November of 2007. They initially attempted to rob the man because they thought he was an easy target.

The former Airman was a WWII veteran with a group of the nation’s first black military pilots from Tuskegee.

Anthony and his 19 year old cousin William entered the man’s home through a basement window, crept up the stairs and proceeded to slash the elder’s throat and hit him over the head with a pipe. Anthony’s cousin is awaiting trial.

Mercer County Superior Court Judge Ed Neafsey, in preparation for William Bethea’s trial, said that jurors will be allowed to watch a tape of him pinning the blame on his cousin for the murder. William was a member of Trenton High School’s ROTC program, and he was wearing his uniform during the recording of the tape. He stated that after exiting the home, his cousin Anthony came out and said “mission accomplished. I just killed somebody, and I got the car.” William also claims all he did was steal some things from the house.

Anthony will be eligible for parole when he is 61 years old. Judge Neafsey said he will indefinitely serve at least 85 percent of his sentence.

A memorial for Eure will be held Nov. 5 from 7-9 p.m. at Covenant Presbyterian Church, 471 Parkway Ave. in Trenton.

New Jersey lawmakers have come together in a bipartisan effort to strengthen the state’s bullying laws in the wake of the suicide of Tyler Clementi.

The freshman at Rutgers killed himself after his hateful roommate played a video of his sexual relations with another man online.

The “anti-bullying bill of rights” legislation proposed by lawmakers would require K-12 school districts to make anti-bullying programs and give teachers and staff proper training as to preventing bullying and suicide. New Jersey was one of the first states to pass bullying legislation in 2002, but sponsors of the bill say it wasn’t good enough.

Tyler Clementi is just one  local example of many others who have killed themselves nationwide as a result of bullying in recent months.