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Barack Obama is a master at grabbing and keeping his audience's attention, which is the number one goal of any public speaker. How does he do it? Here are five key lessons from Obama's rhetorical playbook.

More people were at stores over Black Friday weekend, but they spent less money, according to an NRF survey. The results point to a cash-strapped consumer looking for deals.

Hang onto this essential checklist, so you’ll know what to do when the time comes.

Noah K. Murray/The Star-LedgerMarine research technician Christina Haskins on Aug. 20 prepares for the launch of a Rutgers University underwater glider off the coast of Sandy Hook.

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• Tim Hawk/ Gloucester County TimesKiddie Kollege Daycare and Preschool was closed due to high levels of mercury.New Jersey lawmakers advanced legislation today that would toughen the state’s environmental crime laws.

The bill (A2951), cleared by the Assembly Judiciary Committee, would make it a crime for someone to expose a single person to a toxic pollutant, either through inhalation, ingestion or absorption.

The legislation stemmed from contamination found at a Gloucester County day care center in 2006, where dozens of children were unknowingly exposed to mercury.

The center, Kiddie Kollege in Franklin Township, was on the site of a former thermometer factory.

Approximately 60 children tested positive for mercury poisoning, but no one was held criminally accountable.

Attorney General Anne Milgram said later that existing laws were not strong enough to get a conviction.

State law currently requires at least five people be exposed to environmental hazards and sustain serious bodily injury, meaning disfigurement or near-death injuries, in order to get a conviction, Milgram has said.

The legislation would create two crimes. It would make it a second-degree crime for a person to expose a single individual to a toxic pollutant through inhalation, ingestion or absorption, purposely or knowingly. Second-degree crimes are punishable by up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $150,000 or both.

A person who recklessly exposes a single person to a contaminant could be charged with a third-degree crime, punishable by three to five years in prison, a fine of up to $15,000 or both.
The bill goes to the Assembly speaker, who will decide whether to post it for a vote in the full Assembly.

Jerry McCrea/The Star-LedgerA view of PSE&G's Susquehanna-Roseland transmission line in Montville. A proposal by PSE&G would more than triple the line's current size and capacity.
The utility company estimates the new line will cost $1.1 billion and be completed in 2013.

"At some point rate payers are just not going to be able to pay for this," said Stefanie Brand, the director of the Division of Rate Counsel. "Projects are getting so expensive."

The 500-kilovolt power line would begin in Branchburg Township in Somerset County, head north to Roseland and then east to Jersey City, a length of 50 to 70 miles, depending on the exact route, officials said. It will be built on property already owned or leased by PSE&G, but utility official said the final route has not been chosen.

"Construction is more than a year away," said Karen Johnson, a PSE&G spokeswoman. "We’re at very preliminary stages. We’re not ready to discuss any specific routes."

Brand, whose group voiced similar opposition over the Susquehanna-Roseland segment of the the project, is opposing PSE&G’s request to recoup more money than they ordinarily could on electric rates alone. Called "incentive rates," the allowance would permit the utility to tack an additional 1.5 percent of the project’s construction costs onto customer bills.

"It’s not that different when you have a savings account and you get 4 percent interest," Brand said. "It’s a 1.5 percent over and their normal return. They want a bonus."

Last month the state Board of Public Utilities filed a notice of intervention regarding the project, but a BPU attorney this week described the paperwork as routine.

"We’re not taking a substantive position at this time," he said. "It’s a power line in New Jersey."

PSE&G defended the need for the transmission line and the financing request as necessary for such a large and costly project.

In its request to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the utility calls the plan a "backbone project." PSE&G said the expansion was mandated by PJM Interconnection, the company that oversees the distribution of electricity throughout portions of the Ohio Valley and mid-Atlantic.

"Such a project carries a substantial amount of (financial) risk," said Johnson, adding that incentive rates have already been approved on the Susquehanna-Roseland segment of the line.

State Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex), whose legislative district includes Roseland, said he plans on organizing a town meeting in order to let PSE&G better explain their plans.

"It’s better to be proactive than reactive," Codey said. "You want to let the residents hear the facts."

While not rejecting the project outright, Brand and her organization called for the project’s evaluation going forward.

"We want to make sure if New Jersey rate payers pay for this that New Jersey customers get the benefit of it," she said.

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