Monmouth Poll: Christie’s Approval Rating is 15%

Governor Chris Christie’s approval rating amongst New Jersey residents appears to have hit bottom at 15%.

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Year in review: April 2015

Governor Chris Christie pardoned Shaneen Allen, the single mother from Philadelphia who was arrested on gun possession charges in Atlantic County in 2013.

Senator Bob Menendez was indicted on federal corruption charges. Menendez stepped down as ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

State Senator Joe Kyrillos endorsed former Florida Governor Jeb Bush for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.

Brookdale Community College President Maureen Murphy applied for the top job at Blinn College in Bryan, Texas.  She didn’t get it.

The year in review: 2015

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N.J.’s Menendez trial delayed for up to a year

WASHINGTON — A U.S. District Court judge on Thursday pushed back the trial of U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez for as much as a year to provide time for appeals of motions filed with the court. Judge William Walls said the trial would not start next month as originally scheduled because he expected any rulings on a… Read the rest of this entry »

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Former Asbury Park Mayor Considering Gubernatorial Run

Ed Johnson photo via facebook

Former Asbury Park Mayor Ed Johnson is “seriously thinking about” running for governor in 2017, according to a report on PolitickerNJ.

“I know a little about raising cities from the dead, and I know about staring down Hurricane Sandy,” said Johnson, who runs his own private consulting firm. “There are no greater troubled waters than our state right now. Whether it’s Democratic or Republican it just keeps going.Everything I’ve done, people said ‘you can’t do that,’ and we did it. People now say the state is too far gone, too broken, it can’t be fixed. I think it can be. I’m not saying I’ve made a final decision. It would be a wildcat, barn-burner election, no question, but the people must regain control of this state.”

Johnson stared down Hurricane Sandy by hosting New Jersey Democratic leaders at a pre-election rally on October 28, 2012.    Senator Bob Menendez, Cory Booker, then mayor of Newark, former Governor Dick Codey, Congressman Frank Pallone and state Senator Barbara Buono joined Johnson and Monmouth Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal in a rally for Menendez and President Obama while the rest of New Jersey was preparing for the worst and  praying to be spared by the troubled waters of Sandy.

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N.J. lawmakers: Give homeowners 3 more months for Sandy claims

WASHINGTON — The New Jersey congressional delegation is asking the Federal Emergency Management Agency to extend until Dec. 15 its deadline for receiving requests from Hurricane Sandy homeowners to reconsider their damage claims. The lawmakers, in a letter to FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, sought another three months to give all homeowners enough time to contact the… Read the rest of this entry »

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N.J. lawmakers to FEMA: Stop demanding Sandy victims give back government overpayments

Shore Blvd, Keansburg Oct. 30, 2012

TRENTON — The Federal Emergency Management Agency should stop demanding that Hurricane Sandy victims pay back money they mistakenly received from the government, members of the New Jersey congressional delegation said in a letter released today. Both U.S. senators and 10 of the state’s 12 U.S. representatives signed a letter to FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate asking… Read the rest of this entry »

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Heard on the Belmar Boardwalk

The boardwalk’s reconstruction began on Jan. 9. It required more than a half million screws, Mayor Matt Doherty said.

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Smoking Gun? Breitbart report points to Menendez on unreported private flight to DR

Will Senate Democrats continue to give Menendez cover if he lied to them?

The reporter who first broke the Menendez sex scandal story posted an eyewitness account of Senator Robert Menendez dining with Dr. Salomon Melgen one mile from Teterboro Airport on Easter morning of 2012, while Melgen’s private plane was being refueled for a direct flight to the Dominican Republic.

Menendez has admitted to taking three flights to the DR on Melgen’s jet.  One was paid for by the Democratic Senatorial Committee.  The other two were reported and paid for personally by Menendez…almost three years after the fact…as a result of NJ State Senator Sam Thompson’s ethics complaint filed in November of 2012.  Menendez paid $58,500 for the two flights last month.

The Dominican prostitutes who first fingered Menendez said they met him during Easter of 2012. Menendez’s and Melgen’s friend,  Dominican politician Vinicio Castillo Seman admitted that the senator was the Dominican Republic on Easter of last year, according to Breitbart.

In addition, Menendez’s and Melgen’s friend–powerful Dominican politician Vinicio Castillo Seman–recently slipped up and admitted the senator was in the Dominican Republic on Easter Sunday in 2012, at the scene of where the original alleged wrongdoing took place. “I’ve known Menendez as a friend and of my cousin Salomon Melgen,” Castillo said while attempting to defend Menendez amid the scandalous allegations that currently plague him. “No one has come forward on the allegations and evil accusations, we spend every Easter together in Casa de Campo.”

Though it is now known Menendez spent Easter in Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic with Melgen and Castillo, it is unclear how he got there. He and his staff have continually refused to answer that question.

But it has appeared for a long time that Menendez got there via Melgen’s plane. Flight path data obtained by Breitbart News and published in early February shows Melgen’s plane flew from Melgen’s home city West Palm Beach, Florida, to Teterboro, New Jersey, on Easter Sunday morning. It stayed there at Teterboro from its landing at 11:30 a.m. until taking off to head straight to the Dominican Republic at 12:50 p.m.

It is during this timeframe Melgen’s plane was on the ground in New Jersey, refueling and preparing for the flight to the Dominican Republic, that Breitbart News’ eyewitness in the area said he saw Menendez and Melgen brunching together at Arena Diner a mile or so away from the airport.

If Menendez was on the Melgen’s flight to the Dominican Republic last Easter, he’s been lying to the American people, and the Senate Ethics Committee, since early January when he paid $58,500 for the flights he’s admitted to belatedly.

Menendez and his office continue to refuse to answer whether the senator was on that flight, or if he got to the Dominican Republic that Sunday another way.

Instead, Menendez says he’s got his hand on the plough and is looking forward, quoting the Gospel of Luke.

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Menendez was still doing Melgen’s bidding last month

The scrutiny that his relationship with Dr. Salomon Melgen was getting didn’t keep U.S. Senator Bob Menendez from using his power as an advocate for his benefactor last month.

Menendez intervened with the Department of Homeland Security in January, asking that they not provide port security equipment to the Dominican Republic. Menendez was concerned that the advanced screening equipment would undermine the efforts of Melgen’s company that has a $500 million contract with the DR for port security operations.  Dominican customs officials have been trying to cancel the contract with Melgen, citing its excessive cost, over the objections of Menendez.

Melgen has been a friend and contributor of Menendez’s for over 20 years.  After being caught failing to disclose flights to the Dominican Republic on Melgen’s private plane, Menendez paid Melgen $58,500 in January for two flights that occurred in 2010.   Melgen’s eye care clinic was raided by the FBI in January.  Media reports say the eye doctor is being investigated for $8.9 million if Medicare/Medicaid fraud and that he owes the IRS $11 million.

Menendez has also intervened with federal health care officials regarding Medicare/Medicaid billing on behalf of Melgen.

The New York Times has the story.

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FBI Raids Office Of Menendez Donor Who Allegedly Flew Senator To Dominican Republic On Private Jet For Sex Parties With Underage Girls

Maybe Now New Jersey’s Mainstream Media Will Report The Story

Late last night the FBI raided the office of the West Palm Beach eye doctor who allegedly provided New Jersey’s junior U.S. Senator Bob Menedez with free travel to the Dominican Republic on his private jet where the men engaged in sex parties with prostitutes and underage girls, according to reports in The Miami Herald and FoxNews.

FBI agents late Tuesday night raided the West Palm Beach business of an eye doctor suspected of providing free trips and even underage Dominican Republic prostitutes to U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J. — who has denied what he calls the “fallacious allegations.”

Agents gathered at the medical-office complex of Dr. Salomon Melgen, a contributor to Menendez and other prominent politicians, to start hauling away potential evidence in several vans.

The investigation is believed to be focusing on Melgen’s finances and the allegations about Menendez’s trips and contact with prostitutes. A spokesman for Menendez could not be reached for comment, nor could Melgen.

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