UPDATE! Wednesday Briefs From WOBM News

News from Ocean & Monmouth Counties and around New Jersey.

LAKEWOOD - A homeless man heads to prison for forty years for shooting two teenaged cousins in Lakewood two years ago, killing one of them. 28-year-old Jamil Parson was sentenced today in Ocean County Superior Court after confessing to eight charges of murder, aggravated assault and weapons possession. Two other co-conspirators face the same charges in killing of 17-year-old Luis Enrique Garcia and wounding 16-year-old Fernando Reyes.

ATLANTIC CITY - An arrest is made in connection with one of the homicide's that happened in Atlantic City over the weekend. Atlantic County Prosecutor Ted Housel says authorities arrested 29 year old Haneef Graves in connection with the killing of 29 year old Corleone Hayes...graves faces murder, conspiracy, assault, as well as weapons' possession charges. Bail is set at $1million cash.

TRENTON - Prescription painkillers like Oxycodone and Morphine would become harder for abusers to obtain if a shore Assemblywoman's bill becomes law. Republican Mary Pat Angelini's measure would encourage manufacturers to produce Opioids that can't be used inappropriately and deter pharmacists from substituting easily-manipulated drugs. The bill awaits a full assembly vote. A Centers For Disease Control study links almost 75 percent of last year's 20,000-plus prescription drug deaths to Opooid painkiller overdoses.

WASHINGTON D.C. - Repair of New Jersey's state and federal highways damaged by Hurricane Irene, Tropical Storm Lee and August floods get a $10million infusion from Washington. The Federal Highway Administration grants announced today by Senators Robert Menendez and Frank Lautenberg are part of more than a billion-and-a-half dollars the agency received for highway disaster relief in a measure enacted last week by President Barack Obama.

TRENTON - A shore Assemblyman's measure to speed up the purchase of protective gear by local fire districts gets committee approval. Republican Ron Dancer's bill would let fire officials amend budgets adopted in february to include grants and donations received later in the year. Dancer says fire districts would be given the same budgeting tools used by municipalities.

LAKEWOOD - About 200 school bus drivers will work Thanksgiving so Orthodox Jewish students in Lakewood can attend private school. Some 400 drivers usually handle 18,000 students. But officials reached a compromise after some drivers complained about having to work the holiday to fulfill a state mandate to provide busing.

NEWARK - Jurors will resume deliberations today in the murder trial of a New Jersey defense attorney. Paul Bergrin faces murder and conspiracy counts for allegedly setting up the slaying of a government informant in 2004. He's been on trial since mid-October. Jurors have deliberated for five days.

TOMS RIVER - The Little Egg Harbor woman who admitted killing her husband with her car last year is sentenced to six years in prison in Ocean County court. Reports say Karen McNulty was also given a 180-day concurrent term for driving while intoxicated, ordered to serve 85 percent before parole consideration and undergo a 10-year license suspension. She pleaded guilty in August.

TRENTON - A bill to refine New Jersey's Law Enforcement Officer Crisis Intervention Services clears a Senate committee. The measure sponsored by Shore Senator Joe Kyrillos (R) would ensure that crisis intervention teams would be deployed if requested by officers or family members, and would require hotline staffers to raise awareness of the cop-to-cop program.

WASHINGTON D.C. - South Jersey Congressman Rob Andrews (D) says he'll refund his campaign about $10,000 it spent last June on his trip to the wedding of a donor and advisor in Scotland - and his campaign will donate it to a charity for homeless veterans. The Democrat said the expense was legal, but criticism interefered with his work.

JACKSON - Staffers at Ocean County's animal facilities in Jackson and Manahawkin shut the doors early tonight. Both facilities close at 5PM instead of the normal 6:30, and will reopen Saturday at 1PM..