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02 Mar 2011 22:17

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Politics: New Jersey’s Chris Christie: The King of Modesty

  • I already know I could win. That’s not the issue.
  • NJ Governor Chris Christie • On what is (or isn’t) holding him back from running for President. He’s been hounded by the Republican establishment to run for prez in 2012, but has steadfastly refused to, claiming that he’s not ready for the job. For a politician to admit that they’re not ready to be President – whether or not they think they could win – is a very modest thing indeed. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Jan 2011 20:49

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Offbeat: Broke New Jersey county: We’re using “pickle juice” to stop snow

  • We’re assuming that this girl isn’t a sanitation worker. Bergen County, New Jersey, has been using a briny mixture of salt and water that they’ve called “pickle juice.” With just a $4 million snow budget (and $3 million already spent), they’ve had to get creative, and let’s face it, you don’t get more creative than you do with pickle juice. Anyway, this is a major cost-saver for the county. A ton of salt costs $63. A gallon of this mixture costs 7 cents. Roughy 250 gallons of water equals a ton. The result? Less than a third of the cost. We bet it doesn’t work very well, no matter how much it saves. (photo by spanginator) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Jan 2011 12:21

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Biz: CDs are dying: Sony closing another CD-production factory

  • 277 workers lost their jobs in 2003, after a Springfield, Ore. CD plant (run by Sony) closed
  • 300 workers in Pitman, N.J. will lose their jobs when their CD plant closes on March 31
  • one Sony CD plant (in Terre Haute, Ind.) will exist in the US after that plant closes source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jan 2011 10:27

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U.S.: FBI arrests mob members en masse, herds them like sheep

  • 100+ people were arrested by the FBI in New York and New Jersey this morning for mob ties
  • 24+ of those were members of the NYC area’s five crime families; the rest were associates source
  • » Among the charges face: Murder (some dating back to the ’80s and ’90s), extortion, loan-sharking, gambling and labor-racketeering in some of the mob’s continued strongholds – the construction industry and the waterfront. Not the waterfront!
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Jan 2011 21:14

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U.S.: Protip: Don’t go to Camden expecting the police to help you

  • bad Camden, NJ, a city that was once home to Walt Whitman, has the second-highest crime rate in the entire country.
  • worse The formerly industrial city, in steep decline, has a massive budget shortfall – it’s roughly $26.5 million in the red.
  • worser To solve the worse problem, they chose the cut the police force by half, making the bad problem worser. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Jan 2011 20:08

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Politics: Chris Christie confirms, once again, that he’s not running for President

  • I am not arrogant enough to believe that after one year as governor of New Jersey and seven years as United States attorney that I am ready to be President of the United States, so I’m not going to run.
  • Chris Christie • Deflating the hopes of Republicans everywhere. Christie is seen by many as an extremely viable Presidential candidate: charismatic, combative, fiscally conservative, and from a blue state. Unfortunately, he seems to have absolutely no interest in running, and has categorically ruled it out in the past. Well, if anything, it’s good news for Mitt Romney! source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Dec 2010 08:47

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U.S.: How much snow fell in New York yesterday? A freaking lot

  • 29 inches of snow fell in many parts of New York state on Sunday
  • 2,000 flights were canceled; Amtrak trains were also cancelled on Sunday
  • six states declared a state of emergency after the massive storm source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

16 Nov 2010 20:25

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U.S.: NYC has another idea to expand New Jersey’s subway service

  • Commuters in New Joisey, you aren’t screwed yet. Weeks ago, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced he was killing off a massive public works project to get a subway line under the Hudson River into New York City. While fiscal conservatives feted the decision, many long-suffering commuters felt burned. New York City is considering coming to the rescue, offering to extend a subway line out of the city and into New Jersey – at a fraction of the shuttered plan’s cost:
  • $11.4
    billion     the estimated cost (with overruns) of the New Jersey subway project that Gov. Chris Christie killed
  • $5.3
    billion     the estimated cost of New York extending the No. 7 subway line under the Hudson River source
  • » Agreement still needed: While Michael Bloomberg’s administration is spearheading this, incoming NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo, along with Christie, would have to come to terms with the plan, which, while less expensive, definitely isn’t cheap. But the long-term benefits could prove worth it.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Oct 2010 22:27

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U.S.: Chris Christie’s N.J. rail tunnel cancellation = Shaky political ground

  • New Jersey’s governor just gave public works projects a body blow today. Why, you ask? Well, Chris Christie, frustrated over the possibility of putting taxpayers on the hook for billions in cost overruns, ordered the shutdown of a massive, long-in-the-works plan to build a passenger rail tunnel under the Hudson River between New Jersey and New York City. While his reasons are fiscal conservative to the core, let’s just emphasize a few things about what he’s costing his state by shutting down the largest public works project in the country:
  • $8.7 billion, the estimated cost of the New Jersey rail project
  • $3
    billion     the amount the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey had already promised for the project
  • $300
    million     the amount New Jersey may have to pay back the federal government for the unfinished project
  • $2.7B the anticipated cost overruns of the already-in-progress public works project
  • 6,000 the number of jobs the project would have given New Jersey construction workers
  • 20 the number of years the wheels had been turning on this highly-anticipated project source
  • » And lots of people are pissed, too. Even considering the costs of this project (which had bipartisan support, by the way), the potential benefits could’ve been long-term and might’ve paid for themselves. Homeowners lost out on higher home prices. Commuters lost the possibility of less-annoying commutes. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood sounded like he wanted to shout in Chris Christie’s face so loudly it ripped the governor’s skin off. And Christie, while bolstering his support among the right, could hurt his re-election chances because of the perceived flip-flop. This is dangerous ground no matter the fiscal benefits.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Sep 2010 11:18

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U.S.: Tyler Clementi may have posted cry for help online before suicide

  • People have commented on his profile with things like ‘how did you manage to go back in there? are you okay?’ and the fact that people he was with saw my making out with a guy as the scandal, whereas I mean come on… he was SPYING ON ME…do they see nothing wrong with this?
  • A quote reportedly from Rutgers student Tyler Clementi • Posted on an online forum not long before he committed suicide. The quote was from Cit2mo, and he described a situation very much like the one that Clementi suffered. While there’s no independent confirmation, the situation matches Clementi’s almost exactly. According to a friend of Clementi’s roommate Dharun Ravi, it was merely in good fun. “He’s very, very open-minded,” Michael Zhuang said, “and he, like if it had been a girl in the room it wouldn’t have been any different.” Tell that to Tyler. He seemed not to appreciate the gesture. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink
 
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