Tag: corruption

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Another Port Authority Disaster : Newark AirTrain’s demise comes as no surprise

Newark Airtran

DECEMBER 13, 2015, 11:01 PM    LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2015, 11:20 PM
BY CHRISTOPHER MAAG
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

When the AirTrain monorail opened at Newark International Airport in 1996, it was viewed as an engineering marvel. Finally, the airport’s old fleet of bouncy, slow, diesel-fuming jitney buses had been replaced by a sleek train passing silently overhead.

“There will be no more people saying, ‘I got to the airport in 10 minutes but it took me 30 minutes to travel around the terminals,’Ÿ” said John J. Haley Jr., deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. “The system is absolutely safe and reliable.”

Safe, maybe. But AirTrain Newark was never reliable. And that should have come as no surprise to the people responsible for bringing it to the airport.

They knew because they were told by the man who sold it to them.

“It was a system that had not been run previously in the snow,” said Paul H. Wyss, now 80 and retired for 20 years. He conceived the project in the early 1990s when he was chief of American operations for Von Roll Transport. “Everybody knew ahead of time that there would be issues with snow and snow removal,” he said.

That proved to be an understatement. Even before AirTrain was finished, the Port Authority had serious problems clearing snow and ice, which delayed the monorail’s opening. Those issues — plus a half-dozen more — grew worse over the next two decades.

Finally, 19 years after it went into service, Port Authority Executive Director Pat Foye announced in May that AirTrain Newark must be scrapped.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/newark-airtrain-s-demise-comes-as-no-surprise-1.1473289

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Dr. Tim Ball in his new book, “The Deliberate Corruption of Climate Science”.

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BY BRITTANY SOARES

“It is the greatest deception in history and the extent of the damage has yet to be exposed and measured,” says Dr. Tim Ball in his new book, “The Deliberate Corruption of Climate Science”.

Dr. Ball has been a climatologist for more than forty years and was one of the earliest critics of the global warming hoax that was initiated by the United Nations environmental program that was established in 1972 and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) established in 1988.

Several UN conferences set in motion the hoax that is based on the assertion that carbon dioxide (CO2) was causing a dramatic surge in heating the Earth. IPCC reports have continued to spread this lie through their summaries for policy makers that influenced policies that have caused nations worldwide to spend billions to reduce and restrict CO2 emissions.

Manmade climate change—called anthropogenic global warming—continues to be the message though mankind plays no role whatever.

https://www.thefederalistpapers.org/us/the-truth-about-climate-change-liberals-dont-want-you-to-know

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America’s Founding Principles Are in Danger of Corruption

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Gary Hart
June. 26, 2015

Welcome to the age of vanity politics and campaigns-for-hire. What would our founders make of this nightmare?

Four qualities have distinguished republican government from ancient Athens forward: the sovereignty of the people; a sense of the common good; government dedicated to the commonwealth; and resistance to corruption. Measured against the standards established for republics from ancient times, the American Republic is massively corrupt.

From Plato and Aristotle forward, corruption was meant to describe actions and decisions that put a narrow, special, or personal interest ahead of the interest of the public or commonwealth. Corruption did not have to stoop to money under the table, vote buying, or even renting out the Lincoln bedroom. In the governing of a republic, corruption was self-interest placed above the interest of all—the public interest.

By that standard, can anyone seriously doubt that our republic, our government, is corrupt? There have been Teapot Domes and financial scandals of one kind or another throughout our nation’s history. There has never been a time, however, when the government of the United States was so perversely and systematically dedicated to special interests, earmarks, side deals, log-rolling, vote-trading, and sweetheart deals of one kind or another.

What brought us to this? A sinister system combining staggering campaign costs, political contributions, political action committees, special interest payments for access, and, most of all, the rise of the lobbying class

https://time.com/3937860/gary-hart-america-corruption/

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Reader says We all know that the NJ transportation fund is a black hole of graft an corruption

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Reader says We all know that the NJ transportation fund is a black hole of graft an corruption

We all know that the transportation fund is a black hole of graft an corruption. Why else do the unions want it fully funded? Also gotta love how Senate Budget Committee Chairman Paul Sarlo sees no alternative other than raising the gas tax, but then in the next breath he proposes lowering or doing away with taxes on pension benefits!!! How are the two related you ask? Good question, but probably too difficult for our union hacks to answer because they love riding this gravy train.

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Judge refuses to dismiss case against ex-Bergen County Democrat chief Ferriero

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Judge refuses to dismiss case against ex-Bergen County Dems chief Ferriero
October 16, 2014, 6:17 PM    Last updated: Friday, October 17, 2014, 7:00 AM
By KAREN SUDOL

A federal judge on Thursday refused to throw out a case against a former chairman of the Bergen County Democratic Organization who is charged with profiting from his position through a series of bribery, kickback and extortion schemes.

U.S. District Judge Esther Salas denied a defense request for the dismissal of the 2013 indictment against Joseph A. Ferriero.

Federal prosecutors have charged Ferriero, 57, with extorting millions from a Meadowlands complex developer in exchange for his support and with persuading Bergen towns to hire a software developer who was paying Ferriero. He also secured a Bergenfield borough attorney job for a friend, Dennis Oury, who then persuaded the town to hire grant-writing firm that both he and Ferriero had ownership interests in, according to the indictment.

His trial, which was supposed to begin in November, has been postponed until February because of scheduling issues among the attorneys.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/judge-refuses-to-dismiss-case-against-ex-bergen-county-dems-chief-ferriero-1.1111206#sthash.c7MEFEgO.dpuf

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No-Show Legislating Comes to NJ

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No-Show Legislating Comes to NJ

Sep. 30 State Assembly, State Senate 2 comments

By Scott St. Clair | The Save Jersey Blog

Only in government and on union jobs does a no-show get paid. Now, the Assembly has codified the practice, allowing members to phone in their presence in order to obtain a quorum for the transaction of business.

Caught by The Star-Ledger with their absentee hands in the cookie jar as being “present” when they were nowhere near Trenton, the Assembly unanimously passed a measure to legitimize the shady practice of being recorded as attending a session you didn’t.

Irrespective of what’s on the agenda, voters elect representatives to be physically on the job when there is business to transact, not to not be on the job.  If you can’t commit 100 percent, then find a new hobby.

https://savejersey.com/2014/09/no-show-legislating-comes-to-nj/

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Menendez the Liability

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Menendez with the Mayor Photo Boyd Loving

Menendez the Liability

Jul. 16 Bob Menendez, Corruption, Foreign Policy 3 comments

By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog

Fending off foreign intriguers and Communist conspirators isn’t cheap, Save Jerseyans.

According to IRS filings for the legal defense fund of Senator Robert “Hudson Bob” Menendez (D-Dominican Republic, Ecuador) released Tuesday, the Cuban conspiracy *cough cough* to undermine the sitting Senate Foreign Relations Chairman is a $700,000 endeavor to date.

Nice, right?

Our state’s senior senator now owns the distinction of being the U.S. Senate’s most frequently investigated member, gracing the headlines annually for one poor decision or questionable association after another,  but a full 1 1/2 after the New York Times called on Harry Reid to take his gavel away, the man who is also Congress’s senior most foreign policy leader remains at his post without a single call – right or left – for his removal.

– See more at: https://savejersey.com/2014/07/menendez-legal-defense-fund/#sthash.0I7UkmMB.dpuf

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Garden State in dismal state

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file photo Boyd Loving

Garden State in dismal state
GREG DAVID 
JULY 6, 2014 12:01 A.M.

Chris Christie certainly has his troubles these days. A decline in tax revenue left him with a big hole in the budget for the just-ended fiscal year, which he closed by not making a big payment to the state’s beleaguered pension fund. His transportation-improvement fund is depleted, forcing him into maneuvers to grab Port Authority money to fix the Pulaski Skyway.

The list could go on, but the cause of all these woes is the same: a very poor economy. It’s why the governor doesn’t talk about the New Jersey miracle anymore.

The best way to compare economies these days is by their performance during the long and mostly painful recovery from the Great Recession. That’s what I have done for New Jersey, New York state and New York City in the chart accompanying this column. (The story would be the same if I compared Mr. Christie’s state with the country as a whole.)

 New JerseyNew YorkNew York City
Jobs lost in recession257,900330,200140,800
As percentage of all jobs6.3%3.7%3.7%
Jobs regained100,300524,600374,900
Percentage of lost jobs regained39%159%266%
Jobless rate peak9.7%8.9%10.0%
Jobless rate now6.8%6.7%7.9%
GDP 2010$493.2 billion$1,182.9 billion$509.1 billion
GDP in 2013$509.1 billion$1,226.7 billion$626.1 billion
Gain in GDP3.2%3.7%7.0%
Personal income growth14.2%15.3%12.7%
Change in home price from peak-20.1%0.0%Not available

Jobs and unemployment numbers are from peak month to lowest month to May and are seasonally adjusted. State jobs and unemployment numbers are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. New York City jobs numbers are from independent economist Barbara Byrne Denham; unemployment rates from state Labor Department regional data. State GDP and personal income numbers are from Bureau of Economic Analysis. NYC GDP from city comptroller’s office. City personal income numbers from Office of Management and Budget February financial plan. Housing index from Corelogic from peak prices to April.

It isn’t a pretty picture. New Jersey has regained only a little more than a third of the jobs lost in the recession, and its GDP and personal-income growth is subpar. Housing prices are a particular problem. Only the decline in unemployment is a positive sign.

https://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20140706/BLOGS01/140709942/garden-state-in-dismal-state#

 

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N.J. Legislative panel urged to look into other allegations of corruption

CORRUPTION

N.J. Legislative panel urged to look into other allegations of corruption 

Now this is starting to get interesting

The subpoena power bestowed on the Legislature’s joint investigative committee, which is currently focused on the George Washington Bridge scandal, has prompted requests that the panel look into unrelated allegations of corruption.

On Thursday, two state senators, Republican Samuel Thompson from Middlesex and Democrat Ron Rice of Essex, asked the joint investigative committee to look into a comptroller’s findings that some public officials in Newark had used taxpayer money for personal expenditures.

The comptroller investigation found that between 2008 and 2011 the Newark Watershed Conservation and Development Corporation, a non-profit charged with administering Newark’s water assets “improperly spent millions of dollars of public funds with little to no oversight by either its Board of Trustees or the City.”

Specifically the report said the non-profit’s executive director, Linda Watkins-Brashear, wrote $200,000 worth of checks from public accounts to herself, awarded no-bid contracts to friends, used petty cash recklessly and was involved in conflicts of interest. The agency as a whole was also severely mismanaged, the report said. (Phillis/The Record)

https://www.northjersey.com/news/NJ_Legislatures_investigative_panel_urged_to_look_into_other_allegations_of_corruption.html#sthash.9jQ1Seem.dpuf