Booker coming to Wall Township to raise funds for Monmouth Dems

photo via facebook

Senator Cory Booker is lending his star power and fund raising prowess to the Democratic Freeholder candidates who are looking to unseat Freeholder Director Lillian Burry and Deputy Director Gary Rich in November.

Booker is headlining  a July 25 fundraiser for Larry Luttrell and Joe Grillo at the Wall Township home of Gary and Linda Faraci.

All of Monmouth County’s Democratic mayors, including Tinton Falls Mayor Gerry Turning are listed as hosts of the fundraiser on the event’s invitation.

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Report: Christie is U.S. Attorney’s target

MMM photo/Art Gallagher

U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman is leaning on former Port Authority officials David Samson, Bill Baroni and David Wildstein and Charles McKenna, Governor Chris Christie’s former Chief Counsel, to”filp” on Christie, according to a report published on Esquire today.

Esquire’s two anonymous sources “with intimate knowledge” of Fishman’s investigation into “Bridgegate” said that Samson, Baroni and Wildstein each face “near-certain” indictment.

Esquire says that Baroni and Wildstein have implicated Samson and that “if Sampson doesn’t give Fishman Christie, Sampson is toast.”

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Why Did New Jersey Get Only Half as Much Sandy Aid as New York?

Why Did New Jersey Get Only Half as Much Sandy Aid as New York? (via NJSpotlight)

On April 29 of last year, six months to the day after Sandy made landfall, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie stood with U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan in a seafood restaurant in Highlands, NJ. Surrounded by cameras, Donovan…

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Pandering Pallone Lies About U.S. Soccer Team To Boost Amnesty

New Jersey’s truth challenged Congressman Frank Pallone took to twitter last evening to garner support of the Amnesty Bill he’s sponsoring in the House of Representatives.

Thanks to the folks at Twitchy who researched the World Cup players that Pallone dubbed as immigrants:

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Middletown Officials Suspect “The Situation” Staging Publicity Stunts

Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino was in custody for over 2 hours on simple assault charges

Fiore wants the Monmouth County Prosecutor to investigate

Middletown Committeeman Gerry Scharfenberger cuts the ribbon at Sorrentino’s tanning salon last March. photo via facebook

Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino was arrested in Middletown this afternoon after Township Police broke up a fight between the reality TV star schmuck and his brother Frank.

Detective Lt. Steve Dollinger told MMM that a call came into to the Middletown PD shortly after 2PM reporting a fight at the tanning salon owned by Sorrentino. The actor was arrested, charged with simple assault and released on $500 bail at around 5:15.   Dollinger declined to comment further, but other sources told MMM that Frank Sorrentino had a black eye and that Mike’s hand was bandaged as a result of the fisticuffs.

The story of Sorrentino’s arrest was first reported by TMZ, the entertainment gossip website.  Last week TMZ, which is located in Marina del Rey, California, broke the story that employees of the tanning salon filed complaints with the Middletown Police that their $100-$200 paychecks had bounced.

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Red Bank Regional substitute teacher charged with bedding 16 year old student

Accused rapist is founder of a youth advocacy organization

Darnell Lewis recruiting youth to make the right choices in Newark, August 2010. photo via I.M.P.A.C.T.’s facebook page

A substitute teacher and assistant football and basketball coach at Red Bank Regional High School is facing charges of sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child after it was learned that he engaged in sexual intercourse with a 16 year of girl in his Red Bank home, Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni announced from Afghanistan yesterday.

Gramiccioni is on a six month deployment with the Naval Reserve JAG Corps.

Darnell Lewis, 37, is charged with three counts of second degree Sexual Assault and one count of second degree Endangering the Welfare of a Child. He is being held at the Monmouth County Correctional Institution on $200,000 bail with no 10 percent option, as set my Superior Court Judge Angela White Dalton. He is to have no contact with the victim, should he make bail, according to White Dalton’s order.

Described as a hall monitor, substitute teacher and coach by Gramiccioni’s statement, Lewis recently resigned from Red Bank Regional and has not returned to the school.

Lewis is the founder of I.M.P.A.C.T., an organization he founded in 2010 that purports to help people make better choices.

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Obama diverts $1 billion in Sandy funds away from New Jersey

Kyrillos and Holzapfel cry foul

Sen. Joe Kyrillos

President Barack Obama announced that he is diverting nearly $1 billion in Hurricane Sandy recovery funds away from New Jersey and New York to fund a nationwide resiliency competition that will ostensibly help the winning communities build infrastructure to deal with the impacts of climate change.

Obama announced the competition last weekend at the University of California Irvine’s commencement, according to The Star Ledger. 

“In some parts of the country, weather-related disasters like droughts and fires and storms and floods are going to get … harsher and they’re going to get costlier,” Obama said during the speech. “That’s why today I’m announcing a new one billion dollar competitive fund to help communities prepare for the impacts of climate change and build more resilient infrastructure across the country.”

State Senators Joe Kyrillos (R-Monmouth)and Jim Holzapfel (R-Ocean)l condemned the diversion of recovery funds away from their constituents.

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Golden Announces His Leadership Team

Shaun Golden

Monmouth County’s new Republican County Chairman Shaun Golden announced his leadership team this afternoon in an email to GOP  County Committee Members.

Golden’s Regional Vice Chairs are Mary DeSarno of Wall Township, Christine Hanlon of Ocean Township, Tony Fiore of Middletown and Rob Nicastro of Howell.

The Diversity Council, which is still in formation, is Chaired by Juan Malave of Howell.  John Costigan of Howell is the liaison to the NJGOP.

Ron Gravino is the Treasurer. Wayne Pomanowski is the Sgt-At-Arms and John Lane is the Parliamentarian. Tom Szymanski is the Executive Director.

Golden invited all County Committee Members and volunteers to attend a 2014 Campaign Kickoff on Saturday, June 28, 10am and Party Headquarters, 2 Monmouth Ave, Unit B3 in Freehold.  A light breakfast will be served.

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Middletown Planning Board Rejects Trinity Hall Application

All Girls School Says It Will Appeal

Trinity Hall, the all girls private school currently operating from Croydon Hall in the Leonardo section of Middletown Township, had its plans to develop a campus in the Chapel Hill neighborhood of the Township rejected by the Planning Board at 1am this morning, according to a report in The Asbury Park Press.

The board of trustees of Trinity Hall plans to appeal this decision, according to a press release posted on the school’s website.  They are confident in the merits of their case and anticipate this decision will be reversed. The Middletown Planning Board had directed the application be submitted without variance from the ordinance and that Trinity Hall accept reasonable additional conditions or amendments, which the application did follow.

“As a Middletown resident and Trinity Hall board of trustees member I am disappointed in the decision of the Middletown Planning Board, which seems arbitrary and contrary to Township ordinance,” said Donna Winchell. “The school is committed to being a good neighbor and has given back to the community through almost 500 hours of community service in just nine months.”

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Assembly bill would make sex with animals a crime

A bill that criminalizes bestiality passed the Assembly Judiciary Committee yesterday by a 6-0 bipartisan vote.

Illustration by Megan Archer

 Use, or cause or procure the use of, an animal or creature in any kind of sexual manner or initiate any kind of sexual contact with the animal or creature, including, but not limited to, sodomizing the animal or creature.  As used in this paragraph, “sexual contact” means any contact between a person and an animal by penetration of the penis or a foreign object into the vagina or anus, contact between the mouth and genitalia, or by contact between the genitalia of one and the genitalia or anus of the other.  This term does not include any medical procedure performed by a licensed veterinarian practicing veterinary medicine or an accepted animal husbandry practice.

Penalties for those convicted include fines up to $15,000 and imprisonment for as long as five years. Additionally, the bill directs the courts to impose Community Service for up to 30 day at a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals or a municipality”s animal control program.  Is that a good idea?

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