Feds pitching in: EPA, DEP addressing lead levels at Newark schools

NEWARK — The Environmental Protection Agency will be assisting the state in its continuing probe into elevated levels of lead found in the drinking water at 30 Newark public school buildings, an EPA spokesman confirmed Thursday. “The New Jersey (Department of Environmental Protection) has requested EPA’s assistance,” spokesman John Martin said Thursday. The lead levels reported… Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Why New Jersey Got Billions Less Than New York in FEMA Disaster Aid After Sandy

In the two-and-a-half years since Superstorm Sandy, while the Garden State has struggled to recover, many people have puzzled over the question of why New Jersey has received substantially less federal aid than New York, even though both states suffered roughly the same amount of damage — close to $37 billion. Much of the focus has… Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Pallone: End the shutdown so my wife can go back to work

Congressman Frank Pallone held a press conference at the EPA’s Edison Lab on Monday, ostensibly  to highlight how the “Republican” government shutdown is negatively impacted the middle class and is putting the environment at risk.

“It is now day 14 of the reckless Republican government shutdown that was orchestrated by extreme factions of the GOP to drive their agenda and drive us all into a national crisis. Shutting down the government hurts our economy and threatens middle-class jobs as shown right here at the Edison EPA Lab, where 100 furloughed workers have been forced to stop their work on New Jersey’s Superfund sites, among other critical environmental programs”

“I’m outraged that the GOP shutdown is putting the health and safety of New Jerseyans at risk. This is no way to run the government”

Pallone neglected to mention that his wife is the Deputy Associate Administrator of the EPA.

If Steve Lonegan manages to pull off an upset today and defeat Cory Booker in the Special U.S. Senate election to replace the late Frank Lautenberg, Pallone is a very likely candidate to challenge Lonegan for a full senate term next year.

For those moderate Republicans planning to write in someone besides Lonegan or to sit out the election, vote for Lonegan if only to open up the NJ CD 6 Congressional seat next year.

A vote for Lonegan sends Booker to Hollywood, after he finishes his term as Newark’s mayor, and makes Pallone a lobbyist.

• Tweet

Christie: The Jersey Shore Is Open For Business

Governor Christie meeting with business owners at McLoone’s Pier House in Long Branch, April 18, 2013. Photo by Art Gallagher

After meeting with business owners in Long Branch yesterday, Governor Chris Christie told the press that the businesses’ biggest frustration is the amount of phone calls they get asking if they are open.  “They’re happy that at least the phone is ringing,” said Christie, emphasizing that the perception that the Shore is not open has to be impacted.

Christie said that there would be a multi-media ad campaign launch by the Economic Development Authority next month to promote Jersey Shore Tourism.  It has not been determined if Christie will appear in the aid. “I haven’t been asked. If I’m asked and I think it is appropriate I will consider it,” the governor said in response to a reporter who asked if he would appear in the state funded ad during the gubernatorial campaign season.

The governor said that EDA would be announcing a working capital grant program for businesses impacted by Superstorm Sandy in May and that the Department of Community Affairs will be administering a grant program for homeowners who can apply for up to $150,000 in federal money, over and above what they have already received from FEMA and their insurance companies to rebuild their homes.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

NJ Media Whitewash For Lisa Jackson

United States Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson announced her resignation yesterday.  Jackson was Governor Jon Corzine’s Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner and briefly his chief of staff before joining the Obama Administration.

The Asbury Park Press’s coverage of Jackson’s resignation is more glowing than an obituary.  Both the APP and the Star Ledger used the news to fuel speculation that Jackson could be a candidate for governor of New Jersey or the next president of Princeton University.

Neither of New Jersey’s two largest media outlets bothered to mention the recent scandal surrounding Jackson.

Jackson is being investigated by at least two congressional committees and her own agency’s inspector general.  The Justice Department just agreed, as the result of a law suit filed by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, to release 12,000 emails from an alias account that Jackson used to conduct the government’s business under the name “Richard Winslow.”

Even anti-corruption crusader and champion of transparency, Bob Ingle, co-author of The Soprano State: New Jersey’s Culture of Corruption, failed to mention Jackson’s use of an email alias while conducting the government’s business as a cabinet level official of the Obama Administration.

• Tweet