Usually we leave the posting of video from the Middletown Township Committee meetings to MiddletownMike or the Middletown Democrats.
This week we received several phone calls about Township Committee candidate Linda Baum’s remarks to the Committee. Since Mike hasn’t posted the video yet, we ran over to Town Hall and requested an audio of the meeting to hear what all the fuss was about.
Baum and Deputy Mayor Steve Massel face off in the November election for a three year term on Middletown’s governing body.
Freeholder Director John Curley said that tests performed by the County Department of Health have not determined the cause of the illnesses that befell employees and visitors at the Monmouth County Courthouse last Friday and again on Monday.
The Courthouse will remain closed until at least Monday while the State Department of Health conducts its own tests starting tomorrow and through the weekend if necessary.
“Our people have come up with nothing,” said Curley, “the State really should have stepped in right away. It’s a shame to spend all this money on a duplicate effort.”
Traffic rankings for APP.com, the Asbury Park Press’s website are down 25% in the month since the Gannett owned media outlet started charging for reading content on its website, according to the web information company, Alexa.
The religious exemptions clause of New York’s same sex marriage law was supposed to be the great compromise that broke down the barriers to gay couples marrying. Without the protections the clause provided to institutions that objected to same sex marriage on religious grounds, the law would not have passed New York’s legislature or been signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo last year.
New Jersey’s Gay Rights community, which has a history of litigating against religious institutions that refused to allow their properties to be used for civil union ceremonies, embraced the religious exemptions clause and convinced the Democratic leadership of the New Jersey legislature to make same sex marriage the number one priority of the current legislative session. New Jersey’s legislature passed the Marriage Equality and Religious Exemptions Act in February. Governor Chris Christie vetoed the bill and called for the issue to be decided by Constitutional Amendment via referendum. Despite polls indicating that New Jersey voters favor same sex marriage and that the favor Christie’s proposal to decide the issue via referendum, Garden State Equality and their allies in the legislature opposed a referendum, declaring that same sex marriage is a civil right that should not be decided by the majority at the ballot box. Privately, same sex marriage advocates have acknowledged that they expect to lose a referendum, despite the polls that indicate they would win.
New York is leading the way again.
The New York Post reports that a lesbian couple from Westchester is seeking to overturn the religious exemptions provision of New York’s same sex marriage law in federal court. “Jane Roe” and “Jane Doe,” a couple married on October 15, 2011, filed a class action suit in Manhattan because “Roe’s” employer, St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Yonkers, refused to add “Doe” to the Catholic hospital’s medical benefits.
The class-action suit seeks an order declaring that both women are entitled to insurance coverage under federal law. It also says “thousands of legally married, same-sex couples” have been, or will be, denied benefits under similar policies administered by Empire, which is also named as a defendant.
The women are seeking an injunction ordering Blue Cross Blue Shield not to acquiesce to a company that wants to deny same-sex benefits because of religious beliefs, said Jeffrey Norton, their lawyer.
Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden told MMM that the Courthouse will remain closed on Wednesday, June 20. Golden said that tests for over 3000 possible airborne contaminants came back negative. Additional test are being performed.
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Freeholder Director John Curley told MMM that all tests performed today to find the what caused 77 people to fall sick at the Monmouth County Courthouse yesterday have come up negative.
Curley said the officials conducting the tests are now taking a second look at the possibility that the cut flowers that were suspected of causing the sicknesses on Friday may also have been the source of the problem on Monday.
No announcement has been made regarding the courthouse opening or remaining closed tomorrow.
Monmouth County officials remain stumped about what caused the reported sicknesses at the courthouse on Friday and again yesterday. The courthouse is closed today as testing for the source contaminant continues.
Freeholder Director John Curley told MMM that he received a report at 8am this morning indicating the facility had been tested for chemical contaminants overnight. The test came back negative. Curley said the facility is being swept for mold and pollen today.
Sheriff Shaun Golden said that all systems have been checked and rechecked and that environmental testing is being conducted today.
A message on the Court’s website states that General Equity at the Hall of Records and the Probation offices at Mechanic Street, Freehold and in Ocean Township are open today.
Bail can be posted at the Monmouth County Jail. Temporary restraining orders will be handled by the local police.
Child support payments can be mailed to NJFSPC, PO Box 4880, Trenton, NJ 08650-4880 or dropped off at the 30 Mechanic Street, Freehold office. Probation payments will also be received at Mechanic Street.
Responding to the New York Times series on on the lax conditions at New Jersey’s halfway houses, Governor Chris Christie has ordered Department of Corrections Commissioner Gary Lanigan to step up inspections of the facilities and report violations and recommendations for changes to the Governor’s office.
“While many of the disturbing accounts reported in today’s New York Times documenting lax oversight and accountability in some of New Jersey’s halfway houses took place prior to this administration, we have an obligation to ensure the community placements program is effectively and safely operating today. This administration takes its responsibility to properly administer this program very seriously which is why we have increased monitoring of halfway houses with enhanced site visits, fines for noncompliance and a new inspection monitoring system that has led to a dramatic decrease in the number of walkaways under this administration.
“New Jersey has been on the cutting edge of pursuing policies that both ensure our most violent offenders stay off the streets, such as closing the early release loophole, and support a more rehabilitative approach focused on nonviolent offenders. We need to constantly ensure these policies are being responsibly and safely implemented which is why I am calling on the Department of Corrections Commissioner Gary Lanigan to immediately step up inspections of all halfway houses and report any violations and recommendations for changes to the deputy chief of staff for policy.”
Parts one and two of the NYTimes series can be found here and here.
Unlike the major local news outlet, Patch seems to be taking its duty to inform the public about its most important civic duty….voting….seriously.
Middletown Patch and Red Bank Patch both published Election Guides last week, listing the Municipal, County, Congressional, U.S. Senate and Presidential candidates who will be on the general election ballot in November.
The Patch editors only made one error and one categorical omission. They listed the 12th congressional district as including part of Monmouth County which it no longer does. New Jersey’s congressional district lines were redrawn in January as a result of the 2010 U.S. Census. Monmouth County is now divided between the 4th congressional district, represented by Congressman Chris Smith-R and the 6th congressional district, represented by Congressman Frank Pallone.
The 2012-2021 New Jersey Congressional Map can be found here, courtesy of our friends at Save Jersey.
Patch neglected to report that most New Jersey communities will elect their Board of Education members in November, for the first time this year.
MMM salutes Patch for bringing elections to their readers attention and encourages them to continue to do so. The error and omission were easy mistakes to make, as both changes are recent and information about them not easy to find if you’re not a regular reader of a publication that focuses on politics and government.
Democratic Monmouth County Clerk candidate Michael Steinhorn told MMM that he has not heard from Vin Gopal, the new Democratic County Chairman, since Tuesday night’s convention. “I’m waiting anxiously for my running mates and I to be summoned so that Mr. Gopal can show us how to win,” said the Rumson Democrat, “I hope he doesn’t wait until two months before election day and then say he really doesn’t have enough time.”
Steinhorn, along with Democratic Freeholder candidates Bill Shea and Kevin Lavan, openly supported Gopal’s opponent, Marlboro Council President Frank LaRocca for Democratic Chairman. “I wish my running mates had staid out of the race, but after they endorsed Frank I felt like I was between LaRocca and a hard place,” Steinhorn quipped, “I didn’t want to split the ticket. I felt to was important that the three of us stay united for fundraising and the campaign.”
When asked if he has spoken to the members of his county slate, Gopal declined to comment.
