Week in Review: Police Probe Lake Hiawatha Stabbings

: Parsippany Police are engaged in an "active and evolving" investigation surrounding two young men stabbed in their Lake Hiawatha home last weekend. A 22-year-old man was found on North Beverwyck Road with multiple stab wounds to his abdomen July 31 at around 1:40 a.m., said Ptlm. Earl Kinsey. Tipped off by the victim, police found another Parsippany man, 25, lying in a bedroom of an Oneida Avenue home. The 25-year-old also had multiple stab wounds to his torso. Both victims were taken to Morristown Medical Center where at last report their conditions were improving. The attack does not appear to be random, police said. Members of the Morris County Sheriff’s Department Criminal Investigations Division Team and Parsippany Police are handling the probe into what led to the stabbings. Police ask anyone with information about the incident to contact Det. Gloria Ortiz of the Parsippany Police Department at 973-263-4365.

:  A citizen action group took an unusual step to defend its neighborhood from a proposed townhouse development. The Parsippany Zoning Board of Adjustment agreed to put off voting on the long-discussed 700 Mountain Way townhouse proposal when, late in its Aug. 3 meeting, the group Preserve Mountain Way announced that it had hired an expert witness to offer testimony in the case and asked for more time. Robert Garofalo, the developer's attorney, argued for an immediate vote, noting that deliberations had gone six months already. The board decided to grant the citizen group's request and carry the matter over until its Sept. 21 meeting, allowing for testimony, a cross-examination by Garofalo, and resident comments.

: The Parsipanny Planning Board heard testimony at its Aug. 1 meeting for a two-phase application by the Franciscan Sisters of St. Elizabeth to begin construction at St. Elizabeth School on Park Road. Attorney Bill Strasser approached the board with applications to build a new parking lot and convert the school's current temporary classrooms into permanent structures. Testimony will continue at the Sept. 12 meeting, and residents will have a chance to voice concerns about the proposal.

: About 45,000 Verizon employees--including more than 5,000 wireline workers--are on strike. "Verizon has forced us to do this," according to Bill Huber, president and business manager for the New Jersey-based IBEW Local 827. Talks over a three-year contract between Verizon and its wireline employees broke off after midnight Saturday. The strike involves workers in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, Verizon and a union leader said Sunday morning. Wireline employees were reported on the picket line at multiple New Jersey locations. "Verizon is confident it can continue to maintain its network system if a job action is to occur," Pennsylania-based company spokesman Lee Gierczysnki said Friday.

: The New York Jets held its initial public practice during its first training camp at Florham Park's Atlantic Health Training Center on Aug. 2. The Jets decided to hold camp at the center rather than its previously scheduled site in SUNY Cortland in Cortland, N.Y., due to the length of the now-ended National Football League lockout. The practice was part of a public event that featured games, merchandise booths and the players running drills. Former New York Giant Plaxico Burress was on the field there with his new teammates after signing with the team on July 31. Burress missed the past two seasons after serving a prison sentence for a weapons charge conviction.