Pascrell Calls on Five of Largest Supermarkets to Pull National Enquirer
Requests trusted businesses stop selling tabloid purveyor of toxic misinformation
WASHINGTON, D.C. Less than two weeks after U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-N.J.-09) attacked reports that MNG Enterprises Inc., an arm of the hedge fund Alden Global Capital, was seeking to purchase the Democrat friendly Gannett Company through a hostile takeover of Gannett’s board of directors.
U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-N.J.-09) once again attacked the first amendment asking for a newspaper ban at many supermarket chains.
HACKENSACK NJ, On Saturday, February 23, 2019, U.S. Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5) brought together community leaders from North Jersey to talk about H.R. 1, the House bill that would increase voting access and strengthen our democratic processes. Bergen County NAACP President Jeff Carter, Reverend Gregory Jackson of Mount Olive Baptist Church, and others assembled at Mount Olive Baptist Church for the start of a series of community conversations on protecting access to the ballot box.
“Voting is at the very bedrock of our democracy and we need to be increasing access to the ballot, not restricting it,” said Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5). “I appreciate the community groups and leaders who came out today to share their ideas on how to increase voter engagement, especially with young people, in our communities. I look forward to continuing this conversation and fighting for voting right here in New Jersey and across the country.”
Meanwhile Democrats in the New Jersey legislator move to disenfranchise millions of New Jersey Voters with unconstitutional legislation sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, Senator Shirley K. Turner, Senator Linda R. Greenstein and Senator Troy Singleton, which would require candidates for President and Vice President to disclose their federal income tax returns in order to appear on the ballot, cleared the Senate today. While not requiring the same of other candidates .
Trenton NJ , Senator Joe Pennacchio (R-26) released the following statement in light of yesterday’s State Senate passage of legislation (S-119) that would require candidates for President and Vice President to release their tax returns in order to appear on the ballot in New Jersey.
Sen. Pennacchio attempted to amend the bill on the floor to include all candidates for Governor, State Senate, and General Assembly. In a clear rebuke of transparency, the majority party chose to block his commonsense amendment.
TRENTON NJ, right on cue more virtue signaling ,money and time wasting ,Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal today joined California and 14 other states in suing over President Trump’s decision to fund a border wall by declaring a national emergency and annexing billions of federal dollars earmarked for military construction projects and law enforcement drug interdiction efforts.
Would it be too much to ask that Trenton politicians focus on the seemingly insurmountable problems in New Jersey?
“For nearly two weeks, Rep. @IlhanMN has avoided meeting with me to discuss why anti-Semitic tropes like these are hurtful to so many Americans. There is absolutely no place for this rhetoric in Congress — or anywhere.”
Gottheimer, Luria Lead Letter Urging House Leadership to Condemn Anti-Semitic Rhetoric :
TRENTON NJ, New Jerseyans are inundated with taxes, some of which are among the highest in the country, and now they could be taxed based on how much it rains. Republicans blasted Democrats for considering the proposal (S1073 : Authorizes municipalities, counties, and certain authorities to establish stormwater utilities) at an Assembly session Thursday.
Assemblyman Christopher DePhillips was strongly opposed to raising taxes on people based on the weather. He also took issue with how financially irresponsible the bill is, allowing unlimited bonding and ever-more debt on the backs of property-tax payers.
“The last thing this state needs is more debt and another runaway tax. Especially one that taxes the weather,” said DePhillips (R-Bergen). “I implore my colleagues on the other side of the aisle: let’s not do this, let’s vote down this bill together, let’s vote no and consider financially responsible alternatives to this legislation.”
Trenton NJ, Gov. Phil Murphy and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker called for fellow Democrat Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam to step down after a 1984 medical school yearbook surfaced Friday showing him in a photo in which one person is dressed in blackface and another is wearing a Ku Klux Klan uniform.
The yearbook image opened old wounds in the Democratic party and was first published Friday afternoon by the conservative news site Big League Politics. The Virginian-Pilot later obtained a copy from Eastern Virginia Medical School, which Northam attended. The photo, one of several on a page dedicated to Northam, shows two people posing — one in blackface wearing a hat, bow tie and plaid pants; the other in a Ku Klux Klan robe.
One of the inconvient truths about the Democratic Party is that the Democratic Party defended slavery, started the Civil War, founded the KKK, and fought against every major civil rights act in U.S. history.
Trenton NJ, Senator Steve Oroho (R-24) is again calling for action on fiscal reforms, in light of three recent reports that prove that New Jersey’s high cost of living and bad tax policies are forcing people of all ages, and business owners, to leave the Garden State in droves.
New Jersey’s property taxes and the cost of living are the highest in the nation.
“These reports tell us what most of our neighbors already know – we live in one of, if not the most unaffordable state in the nation,” Oroho said. “New Jersey’s current tax policies are causing our family and friends, in particular retirees, to flee the state in record numbers. We must implement prudent fiscal policies to stop this mass exodus and keep what little revenue we have from disappearing entirely.”
Senator Oroho is a co-chair of the bipartisan New Jersey Economic and Fiscal Policy Workgroup, which is committed to pinpointing fiscal ineffectiveness and proposing commonsense reforms.
Oroho successfully advocated to increase the tax free retirement income exclusion as well as eliminate of New Jersey’s estate tax.
“Despite our best efforts to get the state’s spending back on track there is much more work to be done,” Oroho added. “We want to enact policies that will allow grandparents to be able to stay in New Jersey and watch their grand kids grow up. We want to create an economic climate where young parents can find good opportunities, so they they can actually afford to raise a family in New Jersey. We can and must do more to create friendlier tax policies that will slow outmigration and make New Jersey more competitive.”
It should come as no surprise that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican. In that era, almost all black Americans were Republicans. Why? From its founding in 1854 as the anti-slavery party until today, the Republican Party has championed freedom and civil rights for blacks. And as one pundit so succinctly stated, the Democrat Party is as it always has been, the party of the four S’s: slavery, secession, segregation and now socialism.
It was the Democrats who fought to keep blacks in slavery and passed the discriminatory Black Codes and Jim Crow laws. The Democrats started the Ku Klux Klan to lynch and terrorize blacks. The Democrats fought to prevent the passage of every civil rights law beginning with the civil rights laws of the 1860s, and continuing with the civil rights laws of the 1950s and 1960s.
During the civil rights era of the 1960s, Dr. King was fighting the Democrats who stood in the school house doors, turned skin-burning fire hoses on blacks and let loose vicious dogs. It was Republican President Dwight Eisenhower who pushed to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and sent troops to Arkansas to desegregate schools. President Eisenhower also appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren to the U.S. Supreme Court, which resulted in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision ending school segregation. Much is made of Democrat President Harry Truman’s issuing an Executive Order in 1948 to desegregate the military. Not mentioned is the fact that it was Eisenhower who actually took action to effectively end segregation in the military.
Democrat President John F. Kennedy is lauded as a proponent of civil rights. However, Kennedy voted against the 1957 Civil Rights Act while he was a senator, as did Democrat Sen. Al Gore Sr. And after he became President, Kennedy was opposed to the 1963 March on Washington by Dr. King that was organized by A. Phillip Randolph, who was a black Republican. President Kennedy, through his brother Atty. Gen. Robert Kennedy, had Dr. King wiretapped and investigated by the FBI on suspicion of being a Communist in order to undermine Dr. King.
“Champion of the little guy” here is NJ Senator Bob Menendez enjoying this weekend on the beach in Puerto Rico. Question Senator, did tax dollars pay anything towards your “End the shutdown” junket?
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
San Juan PR, Despite a partial government shutdown with no end in sight, about 30 Democratic members of Congress including NJ Senator Bob Menendez traveled to Puerto Rico to enjoy the weekend with their families and lobbyists for a winter retreat where they also planned to see a special performance of the hit Broadway show “Hamilton.”
Those attending the Congressional Hispanic Caucus BOLD PAC gathering in San Juan also planned to meet Saturday with Puerto Rican officials to discuss ongoing cleanup efforts from Hurricane Maria, according to a report.
They were joined by at last count 109 lobbyists and corporate executives who are named in a memo welcoming the guests, which include some from prominent Washington firms, R.J. Reynolds, Facebook, Comcast, Amazon, PhRMA, Microsoft, Intel, Verizon, and of coarse unions like the National Education Association.
Hoboken NJ, A Hoboken man has been charged with promoting a voter bribery scheme by use of the U.S. mail, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced today.
William Rojas, 68, is charged by complaint with a violation of the federal Travel Act for causing the mails to be used in aid of voter bribery contrary to New Jersey state law. He is scheduled to have his initial appearance this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Cathy L. Waldor in Newark federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
Under New Jersey law, registered voters are permitted to cast a ballot by mail rather than in person. To receive a mail-in ballot, voters must complete and submit to their county clerk’s office an Application for Vote by Mail Ballot (VBM Application). After the application is processed by the county clerk’s office, voters receive a mail-in ballot.
From September 2015 through November 2015, Rojas agreed to pay certain Hoboken voters $50 if those voters applied for and cast mail-in ballots for the November 2015 Hoboken municipal election. Rojas provided these voters with VBM Applications, told the voters that they would get paid $50 for casting mail-in ballots, and then delivered the completed VBM applications to the Hudson County Clerk’s office. After the mail-in ballots were delivered to the voters, Rojas went to the voters’ residences to collect the mail-in ballots and mailed the completed mail-in ballots to the Hudson County Clerk’s Office. After the election, Rojas delivered checks to these voters. Bank records show that voters living in Hoboken received $50 checks from an entity associated with the campaign that employed Rojas.
Rojas faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The charge and allegations in the complaint are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
During last years divisive Village Council Election the Harwin campaign funded by developers and Democrat special interest groups launched into a series of anti Catholic diatribes including circulating a letter attacking Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Ridgewood.
Pennacchio also questioned why New Jersey’s U.S. Senators, Cory Booker and Bob Menendez, who represent a large Catholic population, have yet to speak out. During the hearing, U.S. Sens. Harris and Hirono insinuated that Buescher would not be able to rule fairly and impartially because he is a longtime member of the Knights of Columbus.
“Religious intolerance and bigotry of any kind has no place in the halls of government,” said Pennacchio. “I have yet to hear either of our U.S. Senate representatives condemn these remarks. Their silence is deafening. No one should be excluded from serving in the judiciary because of their faith.
“Roman Catholicism is the second largest religion in the United States, and the Knights of Columbus is an honorable service organization that has given back to millions of people,” the Republican state senator from Morris County added. This is not a cause for concern and insinuating otherwise is irresponsible and misleading. Make no mistake – the attack on the Knights of Columbus was an attack on the Church itself. The U.S. Senate should formerly condemn Senators Harris and Hirono immediately and their colleagues in Congress should speak out against their conduct. As a Catholic and an American, I am absolutely appalled. It seems that being anti-Catholic or anti-Semitic has become politically-chic, and we should all be alarmed.”
“We should all be concerned about the rise of bias in this country,” said the senator. “The hateful rhetoric must come to an end and we should shed light on anyone who is spewing hate, regardless of their party affiliation or the faith they are attacking. It is no more acceptable to attack someone for being Catholic, than it is to attack someone for any other religious belief.”
TRENTON NJ, A new study showing that more residents moved out of New Jersey than any other state underscores the need for fiscal reforms that will make the state more affordable and allow for the types of investments that will retain and attract workers and their families, said Senate President Steve Sweeney.
Senator Sweeney noted that the United Van Lines 42nd Annual National Movers Study, which tracks state-to-state migration patterns, found that there were twice as many outbound moves from New Jersey as inbound moves. New Jersey’s outbound relocation percentage of 67 percent was the highest in the nation in 2018. The findings in the relocation report are consistent with recent migration patterns driven by such factors as cost of living, job growth, state budgetary challenges and the appeal of a warmer climate, according to a top public policy economist at UCLA.
“We can’t do much about the weather, but we have the ability to make the reforms needed to address deeply rooted state fiscal problems, to help make New Jersey more affordable, and to make the investments needed to foster job retention and long-term economic expansion,” said Senator Sweeney, referring to the Path to Progress report issued by the bipartisan, blue-ribbon Economic and Fiscal Policy Workgroup.
“We need to make New Jersey a place where current residents choose to stay, where young people can have a future, and where businesses and people from other states want to move to,” said Senator Sweeney (D-Gloucester/Salem/Cumberland). “If we don’t make the structural reforms needed to fix our state finances, pension and health benefit costs will continue to grow and consume all of our revenue growth. Because of this, we won’t have the resources we need to support education and job training programs, to improve our infrastructure and to invest in the development of new technologies that are critical to economic growth.”
Senator Sweeney also took note of the just-released WARN notices showing that more than 11,000 workers at 55 companies in New Jersey were issued layoff notices in 2018. The figures, compiled by the state Department of Labor under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, signal that their jobs are in jeopardy.
“These WARN notifications are bad news for the jobholders and serve as a warning sign for the state’s economic well-being,” said Senator Sweeney. “They serve as an advance notice of potential large-scale layoffs and they cut across a broad sector of businesses, including retailers, healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry. It is something to take seriously.”
The Economic and Fiscal Policy Workgroup was co-chaired by Senate Budget Chair Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen), Senate Republican Budget Officer Steve Oroho (R-Sussex) and Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald (D–Camden). The panel met for more than six months and produced a series of recommendations designed to fix the underfunded pension system, reduce healthcare costs, improve education and expand shared services to hold down property taxes.
Ridgewood NJ, more people moved out of Governor Murphy’s high tax Sanctuary State in 2018 than any other state, according to a new study by United Van Lines . The United Van Lines’ 42nd Annual National Movers Study, which tracks customers’ state-to-state migration patterns over the past year, revealed that more residents moved out of New Jersey than any other state in 2018.
New Jersey residents looking for sanctuary led in outbound migration with (66.8 percent), Connecticut (62 percent) and New York (61.5 percent) were included among the top 10 outbound states for the fourth consecutive year. Midwestern states like Illinois (65.9 percent), Kansas (58.7 percent), Ohio (56.5 percent) and Iowa (55.5 percent) saw high outbound relocation as well.
The National Movers Study also reveals business data of inbound and outbound moves from 2018. In addition to this study, United Van Lines also conducts a survey to find out more about the reasons behind these moves. A leading motivation behind these migration patterns across all regions is a career change, as the survey showed approximately one out of every two people who moved in the past year moved for a new job or company transfer. Other reasons for the high percentage of moves to the Mountain West in 2018 include retirement (28.1 percent), proximity to family (20.8 percent) and lifestyle change (19.4 percent). Compared to all other states, Idaho saw the largest influx of new residents desiring a lifestyle change (25.95 percent), and more people flocked to New Mexico for retirement than any other state (42.74 percent.
New Jersey (66.8 percent), which has ranked in the top 10 for the past 10 years, moved up one spot on the outbound list to No. 1. New additions to the 2018 top outbound list include Iowa (55.5 percent), Montana (55 percent) and Michigan (55 percent).
TRENTON NJ, Fulfilling its statutory mandate to keep the public informed about the operations of organized crime in New Jersey, the State Commission of Investigation today introduced a new project, “Organized Crime Spotlight,” that will periodically provide up‐to‐date profiles of significant criminal groups impacting the State and region. The inaugural report focuses on La Mara Salvatrucha, commonly referred to as MS‐13, a criminal street gang known for extreme violence.
The State Commission of Investigation is an independent New Jersey watchdog agency established in 1968 to investigate organized crime and corruption, waste of tax money and other abuses of the public trust. Copies of public reports are available at the Commission’s offices or via its Web site at www.state.nj.us/sci.index.shtm
The Commission found that while aggressive law enforcement efforts and prosecutions at the state and federal levels have been somewhat effective in suppressing MS‐13, it remains a persistent threat in New Jersey, preying primarily on immigrant communities through extortion, robbery and street‐level drug sales. With a ceaseless thirst to command respect through fear, its trademark ideology of advancing in rank through violence and its rivalries with other groups, murder is always just a spark away for MS‐13 members, the SCI found.
The most infamous example of MS‐13’s savagery in New Jersey was the slaying of three individuals – and the grave wounding of a fourth – in a Newark schoolyard on the night of Aug. 4, 2007. Six of the gang’s members, including the leader of the Newark clique, are serving long prison sentences for the grisly attack. Such vicious incidents of violence have been less frequent in recent years, and some policing experts believe elements of MS‐13 may be intentionally lying low to avoid law enforcement scrutiny.
Further, the Commission learned that New Jersey is a central command post for the gang’s operations on the East Coast. Over the past decade, an effort by MS‐13 leaders in El Salvador to exert greater control over U.S.‐based cliques, or sets, has taken root. These cliques take orders directly from compatriots in El Salvador for killings and pay tribute by wiring cash to leaders in the Central American nation. New Jersey has played a prominent role in this movement with leaders in Monmouth and Hudson counties directing operations along the East Coast.
Founded by immigrants fleeing war‐torn El Salvador in the 1980s, MS‐13 originated on the streets of Los Angeles. New Jersey law enforcement officials identified the first MS‐13 members in Elizabeth, Union County, in the mid‐1990s. Today, MS‐13 members are scattered throughout the state from Union City to Morristown, Trenton to Red Bank, and Lindenwold to Lakewood.
Along with outlining the gang’s origins, expansion, structure and activities, the report also highlights some of the obstacles facing law enforcement as well as approaches some officials have used to tamp down violence and to prevent vulnerable teenagers from bolstering MS‐13’s ranks.
Combating MS‐13 presents unique challenges to law enforcement due to the insular nature of the gang, which often targets immigrants from El Salvador as both victims and as potential recruits. In some municipalities, outreach is hampered by a lack of Spanish‐speaking officers. Law enforcement officials across the State told the Commission efforts are ongoing to build relationships with these communities but that many people, principally those who are undocumented, are fearful of deportation or of retaliation by the gang.
Notwithstanding these challenges, law enforcement in some jurisdictions, particularly in Hudson County, have adopted strategies that have successfully headed off potential violence and muted the gang’s predatory behavior. Most notably, law enforcement officials in Union City, Hudson County, told the Commission that while many MS‐13 members are present in the city, the gang does not conduct overt criminal activity there because of a zero‐tolerance approach that involves multiple city departments and the school system. Some measures taken in Union City include a midnight curfew on those under 18 and a requirement that building owners swiftly remove graffiti, such as gang‐related tags, or face significant financial penalties.
