Were taxpayers gouged on Sandy cleanup?

In the immediate aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, Governor Chris Christie and Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa warned New Jersey businesses, gas stations, hardware stores, food stores, hotels and other retailers who had electricity and were able to sell life sustaining products and services to a vulnerable public against price gouging.  By the end of November, one month after Sandy hit, Chiesa’s office was investigating thousands of gouging complaints and had filed at least 10 civil rights lawsuits against hotels and gas stations.

In the November 28 release announcing the lawsuits, Christie said,

“The  last thing people put out of their homes in a natural disaster should have to  confront is price gouging from unscrupulous profiteers,” said Governor  Christie. “It’s illegal, offensive and completely opposite the spirit of  cooperation we saw just about everywhere else in our state in the aftermath of  Hurricane Sandy. I encourage more of the same treatment from the Attorney  General for any other instances of price gouging he discovers.”

A Star Ledger article posted Tuesday morning raises questions as to whether the State and 43 municipalities were gouged by the Florida contractor, AshBrit Environmental, that was awarded a $100 million no-bid contract to clean up state roads and waterways and allowing municipalities to hire the firm without going out to bid.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Super Tuesday: No knock outs

After trailing Rick Santorum in the vote tally most of the night, Mitt Romney eked out a 1 % victory over Santorum in the Ohio GOP presidential primary last night.

In addition to Ohio, Romney won primaries in his home state of Massachusetts, Virginia where only Ron Paul was his only opponent, Alaska, Idaho and Vermont.

Santorum won in Tennessee, Oklahoma, and North Dakota.  Newt Gingrich won in Georgia, the state he represented in Congress.

In the race for 1,144 delegates needed to secure the GOP presidential nomination, Romney leads with 415.  Santorum has 176, Gingrich 105 and Paul 47.

The nominating March Madness now heads to Kansas where 40 delegates will be selected in a caucus on March 10, followed by primaries in Alabama (50 delegates) and Mississippi (40 delegates) and the Hawaii caucus (20 delegates) on the 13th.   Missouri selects 52 delegates via caucus on March 17.  The Puerto Rico primary (23 delegates) is on the 18th, Ilinois (69 delegates) in the 20th and Louisiana (46 delegates) on the 24th.

• Tweet