JCP&L Takes Another Run at Spinning off Transmission Assets

 Jersey Central Power & Light is still trying to win regulatory approval to spin off its transmission assets into a separate company. In an amended petition, the state’s second-largest electric utility is slightly modifying a previous proposal rejected earlier this year by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. In denying the spin-off, the board balked… Read the rest of this entry »

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Greg’s List: Things to do in Monmouth County this weekend, July 29-31, 2016

By Greg Kelly

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Friday, July 29

• Leader of the Pack by Spotlight Players (Matawan) – MORE INFO
• Monmouth County Fair (Freehold) – MORE INFO
• Red Bank Sidewalk Sale – MORE INFO
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Holmdel Theatre Company – MORE INFO
• Butler by NJ Repertory Company (Long Branch) – MORE INFO
• “And Then There Were None” by Center Players (Freehold) – MORE INFO
• The Little Mermaid at Algonquin Arts Theatre (Manasquan) – MORE INFO
• “Presidents at the Monmouth County Shore” Exhibit (Ocean Twp.) – MORE INFO
• “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” Art Exhibit (Belmar) – MORE INFO
• Visionary Tattoo Arts Festival (Asbury Park) – MORE INFO

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With transportation funding negotiations deadlocked, County has plan to restart Shark River dredging

Freeholder Director Tom Arnone said he will announce a plan to restart the Shark River dredging project Wednesday morning at the Shark River Marina in Neptune Township.

The project, which had restarted on schedule on July 1 was halted at midnight on July 8 when Governor Christie’s executive order halting projects funded by the Transportation Trust Fund took effect.

The legislature failed to pass TTF funding with a $.23 per gallon gas tax on June 30th. The Senate’s plan was to increase the gas tax while phasing out the estate tax and reducing income taxes on retirees.  Christie and the Assembly agreed on a bill that would have raised the gas tax and reduced the sales tax from 7% to 6%.  Senate President Steve Sweeny and Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto agreed to pass a revised version of the Senate’s original bill last week.  Yesterday, Christie said the Democrats plan is “dead on arrival.”

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Cuba: It’s more than cars!

By Muriel J. Smith 

(photos Tricia Curtin and Nancy Zockoll)

Indeed, they really are all there, those classic American-made cars of the 1950s. They’re all over the well paved and not so well paved roads of Cuba, and most of them are taxis.

There are thousands of them, all brightly painted, the sun bouncing off shiny chrome; all with their windows down…pre-air conditioning days, remember…their interiors either plush or vinyl cleverly patched or taped to look good, and who knows what under the hoods to keep them purring, or growling gently as they navigate the streets.  The cars presumably date back to the 1950s when they were new, Cuba and the USA were friends, and Cubans enjoyed a middle class status that enabled them to purchase foreign cars.  For good reason, most chose American rather than Russian vehicles, though some of them were also available during ‘the special period,’ the time in the 1960s when Russia was the alleged friend of Cuba. The vehicles have been handed down from father to son, and with an embargo prohibiting the import of car parts, have been kept in running condition through ingenuity and a strange conglomeration of makeshift and re-made parts.  Cuba is on good terms with Venezuela, so fuel for the vehicles is no problem. Nor do they spend a lot of time or effort on repairing windows that no longer rise or close, given those 90 degree sun-filled days.

But there’s so much more to Havana than cars.

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Moran donates to Wasserman Schultz’s reelection campaign

Maggie Moran, the Managing Director of the Asbury Park based Democratic consulting firm Kivvit and the wife of Belmar Mayor “Lawless Matt” Doherty, announced on facebook yesterday that she has donated to the reelection campaign of Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Wasserman Schultz is the Chair of the Democratic National Committee until Friday. She announced her resignation after DNC emails that proved she rigged Hillary Clinton’s Democrat nomination for president were released.  She was then named Honorary Chair of Clinton’s campaign.

That’s perfectly consistent with the Monmouth County Democrats’ ethos that it is OK to cheat and the ends justifies the means.

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Five days in Cuba

By Muriel J. Smith

Perhaps the best solution to the problems between Cuba and the United States is to leave it up to the teenagers. Especially if they are teens like Catherine Curtin of Atlantic Highlands and Ava Zockoll of Bay Head.   Because while negotiations are going on at high levels between the bureaucrats of both nations, and compromise and trade-offs are slowly making it easier for Americans to travel there, 16-year old Catherine, a junior at Red Bank Catholic High School designed a week long stay in Cuba’s capital to interact with Cuban teens on the volleyball court. Eager to join her on the expedition were RBC’s girls’ volleyball team captain Zockoll, Ava’s mother, Nancy, and Catherine’s parents, Dan and Tricia Curtin. And me. The Curtins asked me to accompany them on the trip so I could report it for newspapers and magazines.

Life is certainly good.

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Fla. nightclub shooting leaves 2 dead, more than a dozen hurt

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Two people have been killed and more than a dozen shot at a nightclub in Fort Myers, Florida, authorities said. As many as 17 people have been shot in the early Monday shooting at Club Blu, police Capt. Jim Mulligan said. Three people have been taken into custody and there are two… Read the rest of this entry »

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Hillary names Wasserman Schultz her honorary campaign chair

In the Clinton universe a little email scandal should never be a career killer.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz will open and close the Democratic National Convention in Philadephia this week and then step down has Chair of the Democratic National Committee, ostensibly because of the leaked emails from the DNC proving that Clinton’s nomination was rigged by the committee and Bernie Sanders never had a chance.

It seems Wasserman Schultz’s apparent forced resignation is really just a transfer. Hillary Clinton announced this evening that Wasserman Schultz will become the Honorary Chair of the Democrat presidential campaign.

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Debbie Wasserman Schultz to resign after the DNC Convention

Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who faced increasing calls to step down in the wake of the DNC email leak, says she will resign from her position after taking part in this week’s convention.  Wasserman announced her decision in a statement released on Sunday afternoon, though she made no mention… Read the rest of this entry »

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Hillary Clinton VP pick is Tim Kaine, leaving behind N.J. Sen. Cory Booker

CLEVELAND — Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on Friday night chose Tim Kaine as her running mate, bypassing U.S. Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and two Hispanic members of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet. Clinton, who next week will become the first woman nominated for president by a major U.S. political… Read the rest of this entry »

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