Watch Carefully For Rip Currents Today

From the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office:

• Tweet

ABC, Cops in Shops, Preventing Underage Drinking

As Revelers Return to Jersey Shore, Cops in Shops back for 17th Year

Division of Alcohol Beverage Control graphic

BELMAR – With the business of summer getting back to usual at  the Jersey Shore, the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control today joined with other  state, county and local officials to announce the summer kickoff of its  successful “Cops in Shops” enforcement initiative.

Under  the program, local police officers work undercover in participating retail  locations. Law enforcement officials either pose as store employees or are positioned  outside the establishment to apprehend adults who attempt to purchase alcohol  for underage drinkers. Cops in Shops is a program designed by the Century  Council, a national not-for-profit organization funded by distillers. The New  Jersey Cops in Shops program is recognized nationally as a successful program.

“Hurricane Sandy did some damage, but we are proud to be back here at the Shore,” said Division  of Alcoholic Beverage Control Director Michael Halfacre. “Given the incredible  progress this area has made in the last eight months, people are again flocking  to their favorite spots along the Jersey Shore. They’re back, which means we’re back.”

“Attitudes among some adults and young people about the dangers of  underage drinking can range from indifferent to dismissive, making our job that  much more challenging. But that’s a challenge we embrace at the ABC because we  are committed to preserving the physical and emotional health of the young people in New Jersey,”  he said.

This  summer, 28 Shore police departments are participating in the program, with approximately $61,000 in funding provided by the Division of Highway Traffic  Safety.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Bobby Can’t Voo Doo Like Drew Do Voo Doo

Keyport Thursdays Kicks Off With 2000+ Visitors At Stronger Than The Storm Throwdown

With over 2000 Superstorm Sandy survivors cheering him on, Drew Araneo had the home field advantage in the Voo Doo Shrimp Throw Down against celebrity chef Bobby Flay as the Keyport Bayshore Business Cooperative kicked off their Keyport Thursdays promotion with a big assist from the State of New Jersey’s Stronger Than The Storm campaign.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

O’Scanlon Bill Increases Penalties For Phoney Robocalls

Wake voters up with a 4am robocall purporting to be your political opponents and you could go to jail for 3-5 years if legislation proposed by Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon becomes law.

Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon

O’Scanlon and his colleague, Assemblyman Scott Rumana of Wayne, have proposed amending the “Fair Campaign Practices Act,” to provide that no person can direct, order or assist another person to produce, transmit or disseminate any communication that purports to originate from the campaign of a candidate for public office but is actually for the purpose of impeding the campaign of that candidate.  Such activity would become a third degree crime which calls for a 3 to 5 year prison term and a fine of up to $15,000.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Money Can’t Buy Love For Pallone

Congressman Frank Pallone has the weakest support of the four candidates vying the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, according to a Kean University poll released yesterday, three weeks into the ten week campaign for the nod.

Of the 366 likely Democratic voters Kean surveyed, only 6% say they will vote for Pallone of August 13.  49% say they favor Newark Mayor Cory Booker.  Congressman Rush Holt and State Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver each are supported by 9%.  5% favor an other candidate and 22% are unsure.

In a June 10 Quinnipiac poll that did not include Oliver, Pallone came in last with 9% to Booker’s 53% and Holt’s 10%.

Both polls were taken before Pallone asked for and received MoreMonmouthMusings endorsement.

Pallone had $3.7 million in campaign cash as of his March filing with the Federal Election Commission.  Booker had $1.6 million and Holt had $797 thousand.

Steve Lonegan is leading Dr. Alieta Eck, 45%-15% among the 321 Republican voters Kean surveyed.

Governor Christie’s approval rating is 70% and wins reelection over State Senator Barbara Buono by 30 points, according to the Kean poll.

• Tweet

Greg’s List: Things to do in Monmouth County This Weekend, June 28-30, 2013

SPONSORED BY SEASTREAK

By Greg Kelly

Friday, June 28

• Colts Neck Country Fair – MORE INFO

• Jersey Shore Greek Festival (Ocean Twp) – MORE INFO

• Happy at NJ Repertory Theatre (Long Branch) – MORE INFO

• Courtney Love at The Stone Pony (Asbury Park) – MORE INFO

• Present Laughter at TRT (Red Bank) – MORE INFO

• Wall Township Fair – MORE INFO

• Pier Village Sidewalk Sale (Long Branch) – MORE INFO

• Lone Ramblers Country Rock (Belmar) – MORE INFO

• David Byrne & St. Vincent at Count Basie Theatre (Red Bank) – MORE INFO

• Peace, Love & Art! (Middletown) – MORE INFO

• Sport Literature Association Conference at Monmouth U (WLB) – MORE INFO

• Rumson-Fair Haven Run – MORE INFO

• Ice Cream Sundae & Boat Tour (Howell) – MORE INFO

• Seining at the Bayshore (Port Monmouth) – MORE INFO

• Nancy Scharff God & Country Concert (MIddletown) – MORE INFO

• New Jersey State Fair (Meadowlands) – MORE INFO

*     *     *

Saturday, June 29

• Wall Township Fair – MORE INFO

• Summer Flea Market at Allaire Village – MORE INFO

• NY Mets vs. Nationals via Seastreak Ferry (Highlands) – MORE INFO

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Who Makes The Best Vodoo Shrimp? #STTS

Drew Araneo

The Food Network’s Chef Bobby Flay will face off in a Voodoo Shrimp Throw Down against Keyport’s Drew Araneo of Drew’s Bayshore Bistro  Thursday afternoon at Keyport’s Waterfront on American Legion Drive.

The event sponsored by New Jersey Stronger than the Storm and the Keyport Bayfront Business Cooperative starts at 2PM.  The gates open at 1pm.  Bring a chair.

Governor Chris Christie will be on hand to kick off the festivities. The Culinary MC, Billy Harris is the Master of Ceremonies.

Disco Queen Gloria Gaynor will survive as a celebrity judge and never says good bye to good shrimp.  James Oseland, editor-in-chef of Saveur Magazine and former NBA star Darryl Dawkins will also be celebrity judges.

There is no charge to attend the event.

• Tweet

SCOTUS: Same Sex Marriage Is Legal In California

The Supreme Court of the United States ruled on jurisdictional grounds that the Supreme Court of California had the right to overturn the Proposition 8 referendum to amended the State’s which made same sex marriage illegal.

The effect of the ruling is that same sex marriage is legal in California.

From SCOTUSblog:

Here’s a Plain English take on Hollingsworth v. Perry, the challenge to the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage:  After the two same-sex couples filed their challenge to Proposition 8 in federal court in California, the California government officials who would normally have defended the law in court, declined to do so.  So the proponents of Proposition 8 stepped in to defend the law, and the California Supreme Court (in response to a request by the lower court) ruled that they could do so under state law.  But today the Supreme Court held that the proponents do not have the legal right to defend the law in court.  As a result, it held, the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the intermediate appellate court, has no legal force, and it sent the case back to that court with instructions for it to dismiss the case

• Tweet

Supreme Court Declares DOMA Unconstitutional

The United States Supreme Court has the struck down the Defense of Marriage Act as an unconstitutional violation of the 5th Amendment’s protection of equal liberty.

“DOMA singles out a class of persons deemed by a State entitled of recognition and protection to enhance their own liberty.”

“The federal statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and injure those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity.  By seeking to displace this protection and treating those persons as living in marriages less respected than others.”

The 5-4 decision was written by Justice Anthony Kennedy.

The Court’s 76 page decision can be downloaded here.

• Tweet

Congressman Chris Smith: FEMA OK’s 90% Reimbursements For Towns Hit By Superstorm Sandy

FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, left, and Congressman Chris Smith, center, meet with their staff members in Smith’s office on June 6, 2013

FEMA will be reimbursing New Jersey towns impacted by Superstorm Sandy 90% of their cleanup and rebuilding costs, Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ4) announced on Tuesday evening.

The approval will provide an immediate and additional $262 million for already obligated funding and it will cover all additional local government approved funding.  Funds will cover: Public Assistance Grant emergency work and permanent work including debris removal; emergency protective measures; road systems and bridges; water control facilities; buildings; contents and equipment; utilities, and; parks.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet