Prompted by our post this morning, Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini (R-Monmouth) is looking into the DYFS case of the Jackson family. Angelini’s office called this afternoon seeking contact information for the Jackson’s, which MMM tracked down.
Angelini serves on the Assembly Human Services Committee which overseas DYFS.
While I have not heard the DYFS side of this story, the more I hear of the Jacksons’ story the more disturbing this becomes. Major and Mrs. Jackson have been separated from their children, and their children separated from each other, since April of last year without the benefit of due process, if what I am hearing is accurate.
The Jackson’s took one of their children to an emergency room last April. The child was dehydrated and had elevated sodium levels. DYFS says the child was poisoned and removed all five of the Jackson’s children from their custody the following day. The Jackson’s doctors say the elevated sodium level is medically normal for the condition the child was suffering from.
At an administrative hearing yesterday, DYFS objected to the Jacksons’ doctors tesitfying. The hearing has been adjourned until February.
That’s what I’ve heard so far. MMM will stay on top of this story. We are pleased that Angelini is looking into it.
It’s 5:00pm. You’ve had a long day at work. You’re tired of looking at a computer screen. You’re done with answering silly questions. And for God’s sake, you’re sick of all this snow. What is there to do now?
Get happy, of course!
Even nondrinkers like myself can enjoy Happy Hour, especially when it includes a hip atmosphere, friendly bartenders and so-good-it-should-be-illegal cuisine. Visit Taste at 10 Bridge Ave. in Red Bank for all of the above.
Upon entering Taste for the first time, I was impressed by the rustic meets sexy ambiance – wood floors and brick walls combined with dim lighting and swank décor. I took a seat at the well-stocked bar and checked out news and sports broadcasts on Taste’s five flat screen televisions. While waiting for my friend to arrive, I noticed the intimate lounge area and started dreaming of the VIP parties I’ll hold there when I’m famous. Don’t worry; you’re invited!
My friend Nicole arrived, and we chatted with the lovely female bartenders while sipping on vodka cranberry and good ol’ H2O. Nicole and I had peeked Taste’s menu online earlier (and literally started salivating, mind you), but we still had trouble choosing and appreciated the bartenders’ dinner recommendations. Two signs of a great café: Stellar menu and trustworthy staff. Also two signs that you’ll be back again!
Nicole and I started with two plates of bruschetta. The delicate crostinis almost looked too pretty to eat, but that didn’t stop us from enjoying every bite! The Wild Mushrooms brushetta featured a hearty blend of shitaki, oyster and crimini mushrooms with garlic, thyme, brie cheese and pomegranate balsamic glaze. The Mexicana brought some spice to my palate with black bean spread, cheddar and pepper jack cheese, tomatoes, corn, red onion, jalapenos and cilantro. Olé!
For our main courses, I selected the Mushroom and Goat Cheese press (what can I say, I love mushrooms and cheese!) and Nicole chose the TMP taster. My press was overflowing with wild mushrooms dressed in white truffle oil and balsamic. The earthy taste was enhanced by the tang of fresh goat cheese. I snuck some of Nicole’s slider-style dinner, which included three mini tomato, mozzarella and pesto, hence TMP, sandwiches.
No meal that good is complete without a decadent dessert, so we ditched calorie counting and ordered the Dark Chocolate Brownie “Flight” which is, in fact, three brownies, each complimented by a delectable topping – peanut butter, toasted coconut and walnut crumbles. To die for!
As vegetarians, Nicole and I tend to have trouble dining out. It was very refreshing to find that Taste catered to our needs in all three courses. We both had a more than happy experience at Happy Hour. Workday stress faded away as we enjoyed delightful drinks, delicious food and excellent company. The best part? We can do it again any day of the week! Stop by Taste Happy Hour, and see for yourself what our fuss is about!
Taste Happy Hour is 4:00-7:00pm. Upcoming events include a Lingerie Show, Super Bowl Party and Beach Party. Visit redbanktaste.com for more information.
The story is of Major John Jackson and his wife Carolyn fighting the State of New Jersey for custody of their five children who were taken from them and placed in foster care by DYFS after one of the children was hospitalized for dehydration that resulted from a fever.
According to the Tea Party Daily News report, two the the children, ages 9 and 10, have been physically and emotionally abused while in foster care.
The Jackson’s case is the subject of an administrative hearing in Morris County this week, according to an MMM reader familiar with the case.
MMM has not investigated the facts of this story. The Tea Party Daily News story is clearly written with a pro-Jackson, anti-DYFS slant, which may or may not be appropriate. We are bringing the situation to our readers’ attention in the best interests of the children involved and with the hope that one or more of our readers in positions of power will look into the case with an unbiased eye.
State offices openings are delayed two hours this morning due to the snow overnight. Officials are cautioning motorists to drive carefully.
During the fallout of the blizzard two weeks ago, some pundits suggested that the Christie administration’s response to the storm would be Governor Christie’s Katrina, i.e. the blizzard would derail Christie’s popularity the way Hurricane Katrina derailed President George W. Bush”s popularity. It didn’t.
Today’s storm would be a big deal if we hadn’t had three feet of snow a couple of weeks ago.
This storm, and the last one too are more likely to be remembered as Christie’s Wilma; i.e., it won’t there won’t be any long term political fallout.
I’m going out to plow the driveway now before Mr. Neighbor gets up.
Posted: January 12th, 2011 | Author:Art Gallagher | Filed under:Uncategorized | Tags:Snow job | Comments Off on Will today’s storm be Christie’s Wilma?
Democrat Owen McCarthy scored a overwhelming victory over Republican Robert Ferrante in the runoff electionfor Manasquan’s final council seat yesterday, according to a report in the Asbury Park Press.
McCarthy and Ferrante were tied after a recount of the November 2 election results. Judge Lawrence Lawson ordered a new election. McCarthy earned 998 votes to Ferrante’s 679 in the special election tally.
As a result of the special election, Democrats and Republicans each have three council members. Democratic Mayor George Dempsey breaks the tie.
174,943 – Constituents responded to by the Governor’s Office of Constituent Relations
104,000 – Students trapped in chronically failing schools in New Jersey who could benefit from bold education reforms put forward by Governor Christie to
bring accountability, competition and greater choice to New Jersey public education.
28,929 – Fans on the Governor Chris Christie Fan Page
Excerpts of Christie’s prepared State of the State address:
So there can be no question…The debate in Trenton has changed.
We have turned Trenton upside down.
But now, we must take the next step.
We must make even bigger changes in the year ahead if New Jersey is to be a place where families choose to live and work, and can afford to live and work.
It is traditional in state of the state messages to provide a long list of initiatives for the year ahead.
To touch on the plan for every department of state government.
Today, I am going to break with that tradition.
I want to highlight not the small things, but the major challenges that our state has ignored for too long, and that we must confront now.
For New Jersey: It’s time to do the big things.
For this year, the biggest things fall in three categories:
·One: We must stick to the course of fiscal discipline.
·Two: We must fix our pension and health benefit systems in order to save them.
·And three: We must reform our schools to make them the best in the nation.
On these three, what is at stake is no less than the future of New Jersey.
***
First, we must continue the process of getting our fiscal house in order.
We achieved balance in fiscal year 2011, but our long-term deficit problem is far from solved.
It took years— indeed decades — to build up, so it cannot be solved in one year.
So let’s be clear.
We can’t continue to spend money we don’t have.
We can’t print money, and we can’t run deficits.
So we have to continue to make some very tough decisions about what we can afford— and what we can’t.
Next month, I will present to you my budget for fiscal year 2012.
I will guarantee you this: It will be balanced, and it will not raise taxes. …
… When I talk of controlling spending, I am doing it for a reason.
I am not proposing to cut spending just for cutting’s sake.
I am fighting this fight because we have to be truthful about what we can’t afford—whether it is health and pension benefits which are out of line with the rest of the country, or a tunnel which we can’t pay for.
I am asking for shared sacrifice so that when we leave here, New Jersey will be more fiscally sound than when we got here.
I am asking for shared sacrifice in cutting what we don’t need so that we can invest in what we absolutely do need.
***
Some people say that getting spending under control and reforming the budget is the third rail of politics.
Well, I am here to tell you that I am not afraid to touch it— because its been said, opportunity expands in proportion to one’s courage.
So I ask you to join me in cutting the popular in order to fund the necessary.
And I will go further than that.
***
So we need comprehensive tax reform — and by that I mean changes that are considered together, not in a piecemeal approach.
In my budget next month, I will propose the initial installment of such a package.
But let’s be clear: We will not put in place tax cuts that we can’t pay for.
Any economic incentive package that I will sign will be enacted in the context, and only in the context, of a balanced budget.
***
The second big issue we must tackle this year is our antiquated and unsustainable pension and benefit system. …
… I am not proposing pension and benefit reforms just to be tight-fisted.
I am proposing pension reform for the police officers who have served— and contributed— for years, but who may find nothing when they retire a decade from now.
I am proposing pension reform for the firefighters who every day put their lives in danger to serve the public— and who have the right to expect that when the time comes, the public will serve them.
I am proposing pension reform for the teachers who put in the extra hours every day to help their students.
We now must put in the extra hours to ensure the system is solvent for them. …
… So to every beneficiary of the system: I am fighting for your pension.
And to the members of the legislature, I say: Please join me in doing so.
Now as part of our negotiation on interest arbitration, the leadership of the legislature promised to take up this necessary package of pension and benefit reforms.
Now is the time for us to finish what we started last March.
We should pass this package now.
If you do, I will immediately sign it into law.
***
The third critical action item for this year— perhaps the biggest thing of all for the future of our state— is education reform.
We cannot ask children and families stuck in chronically failing public schools to wait any longer.
It is not acceptable that a child who is neglected in a New Jersey school must accept it because of their zip code. …
… Here is what we must do:
We must empower principals.
We must reform poor-performing public schools or close them.
We must cut out-of-classroom costs and focus our efforts on teachers and children.
I propose that we reward the best teachers, based on merit, at the individual teacher level.
I demand that layoffs, when they occur, be based on a merit system and not merely on seniority.
I am committed to improving the measurement and evaluation of teachers, and I have an expert task force of teachers, principals, and administrators working on that issue right now.
And perhaps the most important step in that process is to give schools more power to remove underperforming teachers.
***
Now, let’s be frank.
The issues I have highlighted today are difficult. …
… no doubt, in the months ahead, we will have to fight.
Some might even say that I have been too ready for a fight— that my approach has been too tough and too combative.
That’s for a reason.
It is because the fight is important.
It is vital.
The reality is I’ll fight when it matters.
It matters because I have seen what so many New Jersey families are dealing with each day.
For them this is not about politics— it is about their life.
I fight when the issues are big— when it matters the most.
Sometimes that means we won’t agree.
Sometimes you will oppose my proposals, and I will oppose yours.
Sometimes I will veto a bill.
But when I do so, it will because I genuinely believe it’s in the best interest of the people of New Jersey.
***
In the last year, we have begun a new movement in New Jersey.
A movement back to our roots.
Back to economic dynamism and growth.
Back to pride in our State.
We cannot say today where it will lead and all that will come of it.
But we know that the path of change is better than the path of stagnation that we were on.
I was determined when I took the oath of this office to give the people an honest assessment of our problems.
To tell them the truth, even if it was difficult and my proposed solutions were unpopular.
And to this day, I ask that I be measured by that standard—I will always do what I said I was going to do.
Today, Governor Christie will deliver his State of the State Address, wherein he will lay out his accomplishments over the past year, and set forth his agenda for the coming year. He faces many challenges, as do the taxpayers of the State of New Jersey. Unfortunately, many elected officials still don’t get it.
Case in point: On January 6, 2011 New Jersey once again took steps to safeguard its reputation as a laughingstock. No, I don’t mean the introduction of Snooki’s friend Deena, an actual New Jersey native on MTV’s Jersey Shore. Instead, I mean the introduction of A-3657 by Assemblywoman Tucker (28-Newark) in the New Jersey Legislature. Yes, once again NJ reality TV pales next to reality of NJ politics. New Jersey would be the first state in the nation to require bicycle registration.
In the midst the toughest public budget time in memory, when all of Trenton is buzzing with talk of education reform, civil service reform and arbitration reform, and when, for the first time in decades, there is real hope for New Jersey’s taxpayers, Assemblywoman Tucker’s bill takes on the difficult and pressing issue of…unregistered bicycles. Yes, Assemblywoman Tucker wants us to register our bicycles with the MVC. Just like our cars.
I am not making this up. Under the proposed legislation the Director of the MVC will start to issue license plates to bicycles, for a registration fee not to exceed $10.00 per year. Whenever a bike is sold, the buyer must go to MVC and transfer registration and pay sales tax, just like on a car. If you ride an unregistered bike, you could be fined $100.00. (Word is that Assemblywoman Tucker is coming after running shoes next)
I admit, I am a little biased against this ludicrous law. I own bicycles. I have two road bikes, a triathlon bike, a mountain bike, a cyclocross bike, a fixie and a cruiser. My wife has a mountain bike and a cruiser. I have three kids, each with at least one bike. That makes about 12 bikes in my home. Add in the frames without wheels, and the wheels without frames, and I could probably piece together a couple more. Under this law, I’ll have to register each one of them.
A fellow Fair Haven elected official picks up old bikes put out in the trash, fixes them up and donates them to kids who don’t have bikes. At any one time he has dozens of bikes in his garage. Under this law, he’ll have to register each one of them.
Another friend of mine is an avid cyclist, who easily has 25 bikes in his garage. Under this law, he’ll have to register each one of them.
When is enough? When will the nanny-state Democrats “get it”? We are sick and tired of these petty and frankly, stupid laws.
What possible purpose could this law have other than to add another fee or tax onto the backs of New Jersey’s already over-burdened taxpayers? Is there some massive sales tax loss being suffered by the State on the sale of second hand bikes? Or is this a devious attempt to track and identify illegal immigrants?
None of the above. It’s worse.
Here’s the angle: Imagine all the new MVC employees that will be required to handle the volume of paperwork this requirement will generate. All union members.
By Art Gallagher
Taste Happy Hour is 4:00-7:00pm. Upcoming events include a Lingerie Show, Super Bowl Party and Beach Party. Visit