TRENTON – The Assembly Judiciary Committee heard extensive testimony today before approving the marriage equality bill, A1. The panel approved the bill on party lines, 5-2, with two Democrats changing their previously held positions and one Republican – in her first day on the job – casting her vote with tears in her eyes.
Chairman Peter Barnes, (D-18), Edison, and Ralph Caputo, (D-28), Nutley, both reversed their previously held positions to release the bill from committee.
Assembly panel moves A1 on to chamber vote
The 2011 New Jersey State Senate, ladies and gentlemen.
Gov. Chris Christie announces Attorney General Paula Dow (right) is stepping down to take a Superior Court judicial appointment and a job at the Port Authority of NY/NJ .
State police investigate a suspicious substance in lieutenant governor’s office.
Budget battles reborn over Transitional Aid
TRENTON – Paterson laid off a third of its police force last year after receiving $22 million from the state. This year, things are just as bad fiscally for Passaic County’s Silk City, but the state has only committed $10 million for aid in total to the state’s legion of distressed cities.
That’s a roughly 94 percent reduction in state aid in the FY12 budget compared to FY11’s $149 million in aid for 22 mostly urban municipalities scratching to escape blight, an insufficient tax base, and a downward economic spiral.
Warm reception for Christie in Democratic haven, Hudson County
UNION CITY – The conservative governor came to the liberal stronghold, the über-urban, super-dense Hudson County confines of Union City for a town hall today, five minutes from the homes of former Gov. Jon Corzine and U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez.
But when Christie took the floor following most effusive praise from the host, Union City Mayor Brian Stack, he was roundly applauded.
As bill sponsors waver, Christie/Norcross axis may lose battle with newspapers
They buy ink by the barrel, but for newspapers the days of William Randolph Hearst are forever gone. Times are tough.
The same can be said for taxpayers, who are being run out of their homes unable to keep pace with the dizzying economic twirl.
State officials have been fixated on finding solutions for the taxpayers, but S2072 and A2082 was the last solution the news organizations were hoping for.
Reform Jersey Now, and the ongoing battle of Bayonne Medical Center
Bayonne Medical Center is a rogue hospital eschewing its patients for a buck, according to Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield.
The only way to provide service at all, the hospital retorts, is to refuse Horizon’s measly reimbursement.
This clash dates back years and is indicative of larger health care issues that plague the nation.
Several strands of a four-year fray between the largest insurance provider in the state and the now-profitable Hudson County hospital came to a head recently.
Among the developments: the revelation of a $25,000 donation from Bayonne Medical Center to Reform Jersey Now; attack mailers against a legislator; the unicameral passing of S1468; and, potentially, the sale of the only city-owned hospital in the state.
Obama on the menu
Residents and employees at the Plaza Diner near Tastee Sub Shop in Edison, NJ were not impressed with the president’s visit to their town, or some of his initiatives.
Angela, a waitress at the well-lit greasy spoon on Route 27, said she overheard earlier in the day a woman asked what Obama will order at the sub shop, and she replied he should order “a Presidential Sub, full of baloney.”
Anita and Howard Bennett, senior citizens from Edison, said they weren’t sure why the president came to Edison, but Anita said the president deserves respect no matter what, then she trashed him. “Even though he did screw the seniors.”
