As if the weather wasn’t a damper enough to the Jersey Shore kickoff that Superstorm Sandy ravished businesses, their employees and shore area municipalities desperately need, the shore’s biggest newspaper, and its most popular columnist/blogger are working against us too.
What is really insulting, is that the APP blatantly show how ignorant they are about the New Jersey economy, our tax structure and the cost allocation of our various governments.
There is another logical reason for making the beaches free: revitalizing the Shore economy. What better extra inducement to get people to come to the Jersey Shore? Free beaches could mean millions of dollars in additional revenues for towns. More money spent in restaurants and bars, on summer rentals and motel stays, on souvenirs, on gasoline. For some families, beach fees are prohibitive. For a family of four, they can run $40 or more. That kind of expense can make the difference between going to the beach or staying home. Or between going once or twice a summer instead of several times during the season.
Doing away with beach badges would be a logical thing to do if it would bring revenues to shore towns. Duh! Why didn’t the mayors think of that!?
In Chris Christie:The Inside Story of His Rise to Power, authors Bob Ingle and Michael Symons describe U.S. Attorney Christie’s reluctance to use Solomon Dwek as informant during the Operation Bid Rig investigation in 2006. “Do I really want to get in bed with this guy?” Christie is described as asking his deputies who were pushing for approval to make Dwek an informant.
Ironically given how Democrats and defendants have argued that the July 2009 arrests based on Dwek’s sting were politically motivated to help Christie, the Deputy U.S. Attorneys advocating the sting argued to Christie that he would have been acting politically if he did not approve Dwek’s cooperation.
If this Star Ledger article by Matt Friedman is an indication of charades to come this summer, the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee will make Joe Oxley’s confirmation hearing for his Superior Court Judgeship nomination a payback for the unceremonious end to former House Speaker, Senator and Commissioner of Community Affairs Joe Doria’s career when he his home was raided during the July 2009 federal operation.
Doria has been cleared of any wrongdoing. He has a letter from the U.S. Attorney, just like John Bennett does, but his career in public service is over. Maybe Doria can become Chairman of the Hudson County Democrats some day.
U.S. Senate nominee Joe Kryillos is in the Democrats sites as well. Dwek is the ammunition.
Democratic State Chairman John Wisniewski Tuesday issued a list of questions for Kyrillos, including how often he met with Dwek, what was discussed, who else was in attendance and whether he was ever contacted by law enforcement about it. “If you deny this and suggest Dwek is lying, does that raise the possibility with you that Dwek’s testimony that convicted others should be questioned?” Wisniewski wrote.
Kyrillos campaign spokesman Chapin Fay did not directly respond to Wisniewski, instead repeating that Kyrillos did nothing to help Dwek.
During the trial of Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez it was revealed that among the diobalical schemes Dwek deployed in the 14 years leading to his 2006 arrest was a life insurance scam. Dwek paid the life insurance premiums of people close to death who could not afford to keep their policies. Upon the death of the insured, Dwek would give the deceased’s family 10% of the policy proceeds and pocket the rest.
Dwek’s father tried to get Soloman a pardon from President George W. Bush. Maybe President Obama will pardon Dwek if he helps knock Chris Christie down a notch and helps keep Bob Menendez in the Senate.
An anonymous mailing which included a copy of the book jacket of The Soprano Stateand the two pages of the New York Times Best Seller by Bob Ingle and Sandy McClure that featured former Acting Governor John Bennett was sent, from Trenton, to members of the Monmouth County Republican Committee this week, presumably to hurt Bennett’s candidacy for Monmouth County GOP Chair.
Bennett’s opponent, State Committeewoman Christine Hanlon, has denied any involvement in or prior knowledge of the mailing.
Bennett responded by mailing the County Committee members a photocopy of a March 24, 2007 Asbury Park Press article, Feds: Bennett is cleared in billing probe, which included a handwritten note from the former Acting Governor in which he refers to The Soprano State as a “politically charged and intentionally biased novel.”
A copy of Bennett’s mailing can be downloaded here.
Bob Ingle writes this morning that the government is protecting its butt by keeping documentation of escorts classified.
Bob is writing of the New Jersey State Police luxury sport car escorts that have been in the news recently. Not the Secret Service’s recreational activities.
Ingle is the co-author with Sandy McClure of The Soprano State, the New York Times bestseller about New Jersey’s culture or corruption. His new book, written with fellow Gannett reporter Michael Symons, Chris Chrisite: The Inside Story Of His Rise To Power, arrives in book stores on May 22. Pre-orders are available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Books-A-Million.
Former Long Branch Councilman Anthony Giordano was a great guest. It was very interesting to hear his perspective on the New Jersey economy, eminent domain and the ongoing redevelopment of Long Branch.
Thanks to James/Shamus for calling in twice.
During the second half hour we were joined by Laureen Cummings, the founder and President of the Scranton Tea Party. Cummings is considering a race for the GOP nomination to challenge U. S. Senator Bob Casey in Pennsylvania.
Next Tuesday from 5PM-6PM the former “3rd Jersey Guy” will be joing the “Real Jersey Guys” on the radio.
Gannett columnist and best selling co-author of The Soprano State, Bob Ingle will be our guest for what promises to be an entertaining, informative and infuriating hour….just like Bob’s book and movie.
Bob and I will be doing to show from WIFI AM 1460’s studio in Florence rather than calling in so that the phone lines will be freed up for your calls to 609-447-0236 and 609-447-0237. My co-host, former Senator Dick LaRossa will be live on the line.
Our show is broadcast every Tuesday from 5PM-6PM on WIFI AM 1460 and on the Internet here.Repatriot Radio is our sponsor.
Gov. Chris Christie’s announcement Thursday that he was pulling the plug on a new Hudson River rail tunnel that had been more than a decade in the planning stages was his latest in a line of “my way or the highway” decrees.
It is a pattern that is increasingly jeopardizing New Jersey’s ability to work collaboratively with others — its neighbors, public employee unions and members of the opposite political party — to address the short- and long-term challenges facing the state.
If New Jersey wanted a governor to work collaboratively with our neighbors, public employee unions and Democrats, the crew that got us into the fiscal mess we are in, we would have reelected Jon Corzine. Yes, even our neighbors, Pennsylvania and New York who, until Christie came along, have been fleecing New Jersey with glee.
Had the Nudniks of Neptune bothered to read their own columnist, Bob Ingle, since before former Governor Corzine broke ground on the ARC tunnel they would know that the project is an ill-concieved boondoggle that does not connect to New York’s major transportation hubs and that New Jersey taxpayers are bearing the lions share of the costs, while New York is not contributing a penny.
Christie killed the project because New Jersey taxpayers could be on the hook for between $2 and $6 billion dollars in cost overruns, in addition to the $3 billion, plus our share of the Port Authority’s contribution, that we are already on the hook for. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LeHood appealed to Christie for time to review options to reinstate the project. Christie gave him two weeks. I’m looking forward to the Neptune Nudnik’s editorial after LeHood announces that the feds will cover the cost overruns or that New York is contributing to the project.
If LeHood comes up with an acceptable solution to the financial inequities of the project, Christie should insist upon an evalution of the wisdom of building a tunnel that ends 150 feet below Macy’s, rather than a tunnel that could be built in partnership with Amtrak that would end at Penn/Moynihan Station before he commits billions of New Jersey’s dollars to the project.
If the Neptune Nudniks don’t want to be informed by one of their own, maybe they will learn from the Star Ledger which has an excellent article on the controversy.
FILM INSIPIRED BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING BOOK
TO BE RELEASED IN SELECT CLEARVIEW CINEMAS IN NEW YORK & NEW JERSEY
BEGINNING OCTOBER 22, 2010
NEW YORK, NY (September 14, 2010) – New Jersey Pictures announced today that THE SOPRANO STATE: NEW JERSEY’S CULTURE OF CORRUPTION PART ONE, a film produced by three-time Academy Award® nominee Steve Kalafer, his producing partner Bruce Raiffe and directed by Peter LeDonne, inspired by the New York Times Bestselling book by Bob Ingle and Sandy McClure, will be released in select Clearview Cinemas in New York City and New Jersey beginning Friday, October 22, 2010. The film will have its official premiere at Clearview’s Ziegfeld Theatre in New York, NY on Monday, October 18, 2010.
Envelopes of money exchanged for political favors. Cash paid for back-door deals. Construction contracts handed out for those who have to pay elected officials. Sound like an episode of “The Sopranos”? Worse. Welcome to what is arguably the most politically corrupt state in the USA … New Jersey. THE SOPRANO STATE takes viewers on a wild ride of political power and corruption that started when New Jersey was still a colony. The film exposes elected officials who ran on platforms promising to end political corruption, only to find themselves behind bars for doing exactly that.
THE SOPRANO STATE features interviews and commentary from the attorneys, politicians and journalists who were there – including current New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. The film is narrated by Tony Darrow (“The Sopranos” & Goodfellas).
THE SOPRANO STATE has reunited a very successful team. It is executive produced by Kellie Pyffer. Kalafer, LeDonne and Pyffer, have teamed on the Academy Award-nominated films Curtain Call and Sister Rose’s Passion, winner Best Documentary Short at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival, both acquired by HBO, and on The Diary of Immaculee, which was honored at The 2006 Toronto film Festival’s “One By One” event.
The production team for THE SOPRANO STATE includes StevenMoskovic (Director of Photography), Daniel Raiffe (Associate Producer), Molly Williamson (Editor).
This film is not yet rated.
ABOUT THE BOOK
“The Soprano State: New Jersey’s Culture of Corruption” by veteran journalists Bob Ingle and Sandy McClure was published by St. Martin’s Press in February 2008 and became a New York Times Bestseller.
The book has been called “a page-turner. You start out laughing and end up pounding the table for reform” by Tom Curley at The Associated Press. “Looking for laughs at the expense of stupid criminals? Their nonfiction tale reads like a pay-per-view epic, hence the Tony title. Featured are real-life politicians, businessmen and mobsters who’ve less than gracefully nabbed headlines the past 30 years,” said the Athens (Ga.) Banner-Herald. And from Barnes & Noble, “If Garden State politicians were worried that The Sopranos would give Jersey a bad name, they would be mortified by the allegations in Bob Ingle and Sandy McClure’s revealing muckrake. Penned by two hardworking Trenton investigative reporters, The Soprano State paints a picture of widespread corruption that would embarrass even the Bada Bing! Crowd. Scandalously good.”
New Jersey’s Culture of Corruption