A long-vacant elementary school on Merchantville Avenue caught fire Tuesday night and officials say the smoky blaze could be suspicious in nature.Pennsauken Fire Chief Joseph Palumbo reported no injuries and said no one was inside the Central School when the fire broke out. The fire is believed to have started in the auditorium of the building at approximately 6:30 p.m. Video.

The landmarks Camden has lost or tossed away could fill a hall of shame. They include long-gone but still-beloved buildings like the Stanley Theater, the Walt Whitman Hotel, and the Broadway Methodist Church, a list to which the shuttered Sears store on Admiral Wilson Boulevard soon will be added. Let's point out that the disappearance of any single structure in Camden has been far less damaging to the city's viability than the wholesale clearance of blocks along Broadway, Mickle, Federal, and Market between the Delaware River and 10th Street. http://bit.ly/Pir3QW

The Camden County Parks Department and Parks Police received a report of an alleged 3-foot reptile in the Cooper River during the week of 6/4/12.  Following through on standard operating procedure, the State Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Law Enforcement Bureau were contacted to conduct an investigation.  The Cooper River and surrounding park are safe and open to the public.   If you have any information regarding this incident, call the Division of the State Fish and Wildlife at (856) 629-0555.

On Tuesday, July 3rd - Haddon Township: Happy Birthday America! fireworks display, gates open 7 p.m. Haddon Township High School. www.haddontwp.comHaddonfield: Fireworks, gates open 7 p.m., Haddonfield Memorial High School. At dusk, a firework celebration will be held. Gates open at 7 p.m. Free. Rain date is July 7. www.haddonfieldnj.org

The Moorestown Township Council is under orders to introduce its municipal budget or else. If it fails to introduce a municipal spending plan by the end of next week, each of the five members will be fined $25 a day until the job is done. Thomas Neff, director of the New Jersey Division of Local Government Services, gave council until Friday to crunch the numbers and come up with a plan and a tax levy. Thirty-eight other municipalities out of the state's 566 recently received the same notice of tardiness. http://bit.ly/LjGF8a

Central School, which served students in Pennsauken for more than eight decades before being closed in 2007 is set to be demolished by the district. Mold and air-quality problems along with structural damage ultimately shuttered the school at Merchantville and Madison avenues. Saving the 45,000-square-foot structure was deemed to be a lost cause. Demolition bids will be opened and read by the township’s Board of Education May 15.