Op-Ed: The Opioid-Addiction Industrial Complex – America’s Dirty Secret

Scott Rudder Turn on any radio or television channel and you will hear a report or an advertisement about the opioid addiction crisis in New Jersey and across the United States. If you continue to stay tuned to that channel, you will hear an advertisement promoting a prescription drug to help you with your pain issues.… Read the rest of this entry »

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The Power Grid – America’s Achilles’ Heel

Energy Security Requires National Leadership

By Scott Rudder

The former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, James Woolsey,  issued a stark warning, based on a US government study, that the death of millions of Americans could be only weeks away due to our national power grid’s shocking vulnerability to man-made and natural disasters. Knowing that, you might assume that our national leaders are doing everything in their power to ensure that the grid is adequately protected and that tragedy will be averted. But you would be wrong.

Consider this, the United States is the most powerful country the world has ever known.  We have the ability to cure the incurable, to explore the unexplorable, to give generously to our friends and to wreak devastation upon our enemies.  We can do this because we, as a people, are inventive and determined, and we have the energy infrastructure to facilitate these amazing things.  Simply put, our modern-day success is interdependent with our energy infrastructure.

Yet, all of this could come to a screeching halt through a single cyber or electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack from a rogue state or terror organization, or a major solar flare, known as a Carrington Event, which could plunge our nation into an extended blackout.

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Clifton Says Bail Reform Needed

Assembly Republican Rob  Clifton, R-Monmouth, Burlington, Middlesex and Ocean, said he believes it is  appropriate for legislation approved by an Assembly committee last June that  would allow voters to decide if judges should have the authority to deny bail to  defendants deemed dangerous while awaiting trial, to be considered as part of  Thursday’s Assembly voting session.

The legislation, ACR-153,  was unanimously released by the Assembly Judiciary Committee, but has yet to  receive consideration by the General Assembly. Under the resolution, a court  must find that no amount of bail, pretrial release conditions, or combination of  bail and pretrial release conditions would assure the defendant’s appearance as  required or to protect the public safety.

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Naming Public Facilities

The Assembly Transportation Committee released a bill yesterday that if passed will rename Route 19 in Passaic County after Congressman Bill Pascrell.

Now Pascrell, 74, should announce his retirement and save the New Jersey Congressional Redistricting Commission a lot of work.  Doing so would eliminate all controversy over naming a state highway after him.

Barney Frank, 71, the Massachusetts Congressman from Bayonne, announced his retirement after the Bay State announced their new congressional districts.  Frank said he didn’t want to raise the money or do the electioneering necessary to get elected in his new district. 

Pascrell announcing his retirement prior to the new congressional districts being determined would be a selfless act of public service.  The rest of New Jersey’s congressional delegation would want to name a more prominent road after him.  The Resdistricting Commission’s work would become easy and appropriate, as the district to be eliminated should be from North Jersey where the population has declined vis-a-vis the rest of the state.

If Pascrell announced his retirement, the bill to name Route 19 after him could be fast tracked in the lame duck legislative session.  Governor Christie might even sign it, despite the fact that Pascrell was a Corzine caddy, second only to Frank Pallone, during the 2009 gubernatorial campaign.

If Pascrell does not take this opportunity to retire, the question of the appropriateness of naming public facilities after sitting office holders should be hotly debated.  Every member of the Assembly Transportation committee except Burlington County Assemblyman Scott Rudder voted to release the Pascrell naming bill to the full Assembly. Rudder said that naming a road after a sitting office holder was hypocritical and that the state has more pressing issues. 

Rudder is right, but there is a stronger argument against giving away the names of public facilities.  In these difficult economic times, we should sell and resell the names of our roads, bridges and buildings, with all of the proceeds going to either retire debt or build new facilities, thereby avoiding new debt.

There is precedent for this type of revenue generation.  Former Governor Brendan Byrne’s name was taken off the Meadowlands Arena in favor of Continental Airlines and later Izod who both paid handsomely for the naming rights.

Glassboro State College was renamed Rowan University after Mr. Rowan donated $100 million.

The State and New Jersey’s counties and municipalities could benefit greatly by selling naming rights to businesses and philanthropists.

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