Let your voice be heard on New Jersey’s “Sociological Strip Search” bill

As we reported on Monday , the Assembly Education Committee approved a bill , A2421, that amends a 2001 law regarding surveys that schools can have students participate in.  The law as written and passed in 2001 requires that parents give their written consent prior to surveys being administered. The bill that amends the current law requires only parental notification. 

The proponents of the bill want to allow schools to employ a scamming tactic referred to as “negative consent.”  That’s the technique that telemarketers use when they offer you a product or service for “free” for 30 days.  If you don’t take affirmative action to cancel the “free trial” your credit card is charged monthly until you catch up with the scammers and cancel.

The current law allows students to be surveyed about the following topics, if their parents consent in writing:

(1) political affiliations;

(2) mental and psychological problems potentially embarrassing to the student or the student’s family;

(3) sexual behavior and attitudes;

(4) illegal, anti-social, self-incriminating and demeaning behavior;

(5) critical appraisals of other individuals with whom a respondent has a close family relationship;

(6) legally recognized privileged or analogous relationships, such as those of lawyers, physicians, and ministers;

(7) income, other than that required by law to determine eligibility for participation in a program or for receiving financial assistance under a program; or

(8) social security number.

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Highlands Florist Re-Opens For Valentine’s Day

In the Garden, a floral and plant studio founded by former Highlands Councilwoman Nancy Burton in 2005, took on five feet of water during the Superstorm Sandy surge.   Burton and her new partners, Jenna Morris and Eileen Ricco are re-opening their restored shop at 69 Waterwitch Ave, Highlands today for the Valentine’s Day rush.

Don’t forget your sweetheart today and don’t buy him or her a stuffed animal.  Call Nancy, Jenna and Eileen at 732-291-0311 or visit their website to have your gift delivered or ready for pick up.

They deliver from Highlands south as far as Asbury Park and west as far as Colts Neck.

Set your DVR’s for 5pm ABC Eyewitness news. In The Garden is being featured in a segment!

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Monmouth Poll: Christie looks like a lock for reelection

A Monmouth University/Asbury Park Press Poll released this morning echoed the recent Quinnipiac and Rutgers-Eagleton Polls.  Over 70% of New Jersey voters approve of Governor Chris Christie’s performance and over 60% favor his reelection.  Christie is trouncing presumptive Democratic gubernatorial nominee Senator Barbara Buono by more than 40 points.

78% of voters haven’t heard enough of Buono to form an opinion about her.  Polling Director Patrick Murray said the race is likely to narrow to a 20% gap in favor of Christie and the Democratic challenger becomes better known.

“There is a long history that shows horse race polling has little predictive value this far out from an election. This is especially true when there is a popular incumbent and a largely unknown challenger. The important number here is that 6-in-10 voters support Gov. Christie’s re-election,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute. “This suggests that the race should close in on a 20 point margin as the campaign progresses and Buono becomes better known. The question remains whether the challenger can peel off Christie supporters to shrink that gap even more.”

Murray says that jobs, property taxes, schools, storm recovery and gun control are very important issues to the New Jersey electorate.   Minimum wage is an important issue with most voters supporting an increase.  However, Christie’s conditional veto of a minimum wage increase has not hurt his support with most voters.

According to Murray’s analysis, Buono has the potential to motivate 7% of the electorate to switch from voting for Christie to voting for her. If she gets all of them, Christie still wins with over 50% of the vote.

Monmouth polling staff attempted to identify voters who could potentially be motivated to switch support from the incumbent because of this issue. This group includes voters who: feel Gov. Christie deserves re-election, are dissatisfied with his veto, say they will vote to support a minimum wage ballot measure, and report that the issue is very important to their vote for governor. Analysis shows that this group comprises about 7% of the total electorate. Hypothetically, if Sen. Buono were able to convince all of these voters to abandon their support for Christie, his re-election support would remain above the 50% mark.

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Atlantic City Conservative Attorney Will Challenge Christie In GOP Primary

Atlantic City Attorney Seth Grossman will kick off his campaign to deny Chris Christie the GOP nomination for governor this morning outside the Revel Casino and in Newark across from Red Bull Stadium this afternoon.

The former Atlantic County freeholder and Atlantic City councilman who was arrested with Steve Lonegan for trespassing outside of one of Governor Jon Corzine’s Town Hall meetings in 2008 wants the State to refuse to pay bonds that were not approved by the voters and to cap public pensions at $50,000 per year per retiree. He says New Jersey is in the same mess it was in three years ago when Christie took office, but now its a bi-partisan mess, not just a Democratic mess now.

Grossman told MMM that he has raised $5,000 for his endeavor thus far.  He hopes to raise $15,000 by the end of this week to open an office.  If he can raise another $45,000 by the end of February, he hopes to hire a campaign manager and appeal to national conservatives to who are upset with how Christie embraced President Obama after Superstorm Sandy for the rest of the $388,000 he will need to qualify for State matching funds for the primary.

In a Rutgers-Eagleton poll released this morning, 64% of New Jersey voters, including 87% of Republicans, say that Christie deserves to be reelected.  The Governor has raised well over $2 million for his reelection campaign and will not take State matching funds for the primary.  Christie will not be in New Jersey for Grossman’s announcement.  He is in California for a fundraising tour including an event at the home of facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

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Legislature taking another shot at using school kids to spy on their families

UPDATE 1:45PM

The Assembly Education Committee approved A2421, a bill that would allow schools to survey students without the written consent of their parents.  Surprisingly, there was Republican support for the bill with Assemblywoman BettyLou DeCroce and Assemblyman David Wolfe voting yes. Only Assemblyman Scott Rumana voted no.

The bill now goes to the full Assembly.  The Senate has already approved the bill.  Click here to find your Assembly Members and express your opinion on this bill.

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In June of 2011, thanks to Carolee Adams of The Eagle Forum, we were able to alert our readers of a bill in the state legislature that, if it becomes law would allow schools to survey children about the political, religious, sexual, medical and economic activities and beliefs of their families, without written parental consent.

The outcry at the time prompted Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini to withdraw as a sponsor of the bill and the bill’s eventual failure to get out of committee in the Assembly.

That hasn’t stopped the sociological strip searchers from trying again and again.  The legislation was reintroduced in the current legislature and passed the Senate last year. It is on the docket of the Assembly Education Committee this afternoon.  Thanks for Adams for staying on top of this intrusive legislation and bring it to our attention again.

It is time to kill the bill, again.

Here’s a small sample of questions that schools would allowed to ask their students, without written parental consent, compiled from surveys already in use in other states, according to Adams:

Are you bisexual, homosexual, heterosexual, or not sure?

Have you had sex with males or females, or males and females?

Do you use contraception when you have sex?

How many people have you had sex with?

Did you drink or do drugs before having sex?

Have you seriously considered suicide?

Do you plan to attempt suicide?

How many times have you attempted suicide in the past?

And, incriminating questions such as these:

How many times have you stolen something from a store?

Have you damaged property just for fun?

Have you used heroin, opium, morphine, PCP, Angel Dust?

If you don’t want New Jersey’s schools to be allowed to conduct such surveys of their students, without written parental consent, NOW is the time to contact members of the Assembly Education Committee:

Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan, Chair  (908) 757-1677

Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, Vice Chair (609) 292-0500

Assemblyman Ralph Caputo (973) 450-0484

Assemblywoman Betty Lou DeCroce  (973) 265-0057

Assemblywoman Mia Jasey  (973) 762-1886

Assemblywoman Angelica Jimenez (201) 223-4247

Assemblyman Scott Rumana (973) 237-1362

Assemblyman Troy Singleton (856) 234-2790

Assemblywoman Connie Wagner (201) 576-9199

Assemblyman David Wolfe (732) 840-9028

The Assembly Bill #is A2421.  Tell the committee members not to approve A2421

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Menendez was still doing Melgen’s bidding last month

The scrutiny that his relationship with Dr. Salomon Melgen was getting didn’t keep U.S. Senator Bob Menendez from using his power as an advocate for his benefactor last month.

Menendez intervened with the Department of Homeland Security in January, asking that they not provide port security equipment to the Dominican Republic. Menendez was concerned that the advanced screening equipment would undermine the efforts of Melgen’s company that has a $500 million contract with the DR for port security operations.  Dominican customs officials have been trying to cancel the contract with Melgen, citing its excessive cost, over the objections of Menendez.

Melgen has been a friend and contributor of Menendez’s for over 20 years.  After being caught failing to disclose flights to the Dominican Republic on Melgen’s private plane, Menendez paid Melgen $58,500 in January for two flights that occurred in 2010.   Melgen’s eye care clinic was raided by the FBI in January.  Media reports say the eye doctor is being investigated for $8.9 million if Medicare/Medicaid fraud and that he owes the IRS $11 million.

Menendez has also intervened with federal health care officials regarding Medicare/Medicaid billing on behalf of Melgen.

The New York Times has the story.

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Bag The Plastic Bag Tax

The NJ Plastic Bag Tax Proposal: a Totally Unnecessary (and Potentially Dangerous?) New Burden on Families and Small Businesses

By Matt Rooney, Save Jersey
In case you haven’t heard of it, the Carryout Bag Reduction and Recycling Act (S812) may be one of the least meritorious bills to grace the State House in awhile, Save Jerseyans, which is one hell of a distinction! A State Senate committee approved the legislation back in December but hasn’t received a full floor vote as of this writing.

What would the Act do? If passed and signed by the Governor, it’d impose a brand new five cent tax on every single paper or plastic grocery store bag in the Garden State.

No one outside of Trenton likes the damn thing. A recent Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll discovered 56% of registered New Jersey voters opposed the bag tax while less than 40% approved

It’s not hard to see why. The economics of such a tax are ugly…

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Menendez says he won’t step down as Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair

U.S. Senator Bob Menendez told The Star Ledger last night that he will not step down from his new appointment as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as the NY Times has called for him to do.

“I have no intention of doing that whatsoever because I don’t believe anything rises to the need to do so,” Menendez said tonight at a ball for D.A.R.E. New Jersey.

Menendez said he forgot to pay the $58,500 for two flights on his friend Dr. Salomon Melgen’s private jet because he was busy.

He said his intervention with the State Department on behalf of Melgen’s Dominican port security company…..he held a Senate Sub-Committee hearing for Melgen’s company…was no different than his advocacy on the port security issue domestically and abroad.

“The bottom line is I was advocating for ports to have screening just as I’ve advocated and helped pass amendments here in the United States,”

Menendez said his intervention on Melgen’s behalf with federal health care officials was a matter trying to clear up ambiguities on the governments part in how Melgen’s eye care clinic should submit bills for Medicare and Medicaid patients.

On the Medicare billing, Menendez said he was telling officials “there are ambiguities in the process by which you are telling providers what you should or should not do.”

“I would just also note that nothing of the questions that have been raised ended up being of any benefit – of any benefit – to the doctor.”

Melgen is accused of defrauding $8.9 million of government health care payments and owes the IRS $11 million.

The Senator said that the allegations that he had sex with prostitutes and teenagers at Melgen’s Dominican Republic mansion were politically motivated “smears.”

“It is no coincidence that it was being pedaled before the elections. No coincidence that it gets pedaled again as I assume the chairmanship. No coincidence that we have someone who’s never willing to meet anyone in the press or otherwise… You have to question what is the nature of the drive,” said Menendez.

Another Star Ledger article posted early this morning outlines how Melgen’s political contributions to Menendez coincided with the senator’s actions on behalf of his friend.

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Dr. Benjamin Carson’s Remarkable Speech At The National Prayer Breakfast

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NY Times calls for Menendez’s removal as Chair of Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Ethics Investigation

In a scathing editorial that did not mention the prostitution and pedophilia allegations against U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, The New York Times has called for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to remove New Jersey’s junior senator from his newly acquired post as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Senator Robert Menendez was never a distinguished choice for chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the position he ascended to this month by virtue of seniority. Concerns about that quality gap have sharply escalated amid new disclosures about Mr. Menendez’s use of his position to advance the financial interests of a friend and big donor. Instead of trying to protect Mr. Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, needs to remove his gavel, at least pending credible resolution by the Senate Ethics Committee of the swirling accusations of misconduct.

The editorial goes on the summarize how Menendez abused his power as a Senator on the behalf Dr. Salomon Melgen, his friend and benefactor. Menendez held a Senate Sub-Committee hearing, where he was the only senator present, to pressure the State Department to prevail on the Dominican Republic to enforce a contract for port security with a company that Melgen has an ownership interest in.  In 2009 and 2012, Menendez contacted federal health care officials to question their rulings that Melgan had over-billed the government $8.9 million in Medicare and Medicaid payments to his Florida eye care clinic.

The editorial concludes,

It appears Mr. Menendez has learned little from his own previous ethics issues or from the fall of a former New Jersey senator, Robert Torricelli, who decided not to run for re-election in 2002 amid allegations that he had inappropriately aided a big donor and accepted expensive gifts. It is unclear whether the Senate Ethics Committee has initiated a formal inquiry into Mr. Menendez’s conduct, but a prompt and thorough review is surely called for. In the meantime, Mr. Menendez needs to relinquish his leadership role, at least temporarily.

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