Body found in burned Wall Township home

Update: Body found in burned Wall Township home (via NJ.com)

WALL TOWNSHIP – A body was found inside an Allaire Road home that burned for several hours on Sunday afternoon, authorities said. Wall Police Chief Robert Brice said an autopsy would be performed on Monday to determine the identification. While firefighters…

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Depressing scene at Brookdale Job Fair

By Art Gallagher
artvg@aol.com

Hundreds of middle-aged people looking for work at Brookdale this morning. April 4, 2014

When I was readying to leave the house this morning,  my wife asked if I was working on a story.  “No, I’m looking for a job,” I replied.  Her head snapped up in surprise. In all the years she’s known me I’ve never said those words.  I’ve always been the owner, or early in our relationship, an unmanageable top producing salesman.

The truth is I wasn’t sure what I was doing when I headed into the job fair at Brookdale Community College this morning.  I met a NJ.com reporter who got the ax yesterday, effective in September, in the overflowing parking lot outside of Collins Arena.  “Working a story or looking for a job?” I asked him.  “A little of both,” he replied before getting called away to cover a fatal car accident in Howell.

I was doing a little of both too. I’m having more fun building this business, MMM, than I had in building any of the others I’ve built or help build, but the revenue is not coming fast enough.  If the big media companies are contracting, there’s no harm in taking a look at what is out there, especially if I can make a story out of it and meet potential advertisers.

“Ha, you’re here looking for advertisers,” a recruiter from Town Square Media said to me when I introduced myself and asked her what an Integrated Sales Person was. She got me, but if Town Square wants to buy MMM, give me a radio show, blog and a fat check, I’ll listen.  An Integrated Sales Person sells ad for websites, radio shows and other mediums, I found out.  I’m now looking for one of those.  The recruiter either wasn’t aggressive or quickly sized me up as not a good fit. Probably both.

The Asbury Park Press’s recruiter was telling visitors to their booth that they weren’t hiring until they finish their across the street move in Neptune. Why were they there? Gannett would have to write a really big check and give me more authority than any corporate nudnik would consider in order to get me to fix that mess.

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Monmouth And Ocean Senators Ask Congressional Delegation For Sandy Help

Six state Senators representing Monmouth and Oceans Counties have written to New Jersey’s U.S. Senators and Members of Congress asking for help in correcting inequities and inefficiencies in the federal government’s response to Superstorm Sanday.

In a letter dated March 31, Senators Jennifer Beck and Joe Kyrillos of Monmouth County, Robert Singer, Christopher Connors and James Holzapfel of Ocean County and Sam Thompson of Middlesex raised six issues concerning Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), the Small Business Administration (SBA), FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program and the Rehabilitation, Reconstruction, Elevation and Mitigation(RREM) grant program.

With all those agencies and initials, how could anything be going wrong?

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Monmouth County prosecutor will return to Navy for 6 months

Monmouth County prosecutor will return to Navy for 6 months (via NJ.com)

FREEHOLD — Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni announced today he will be returning to active service for the U.S. Navy for the next six months. Gramiccioni will not be stepping down as prosecutor, but will turn over day-to-day…

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Life Changing April Fools Prank, Best Ever

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An Out Of The Box Thought For Tea Parties To Consider

Clinton Mayor Janice Kovach’s failure to submit sufficient petition signatures to get on the ballot in CD-7 Democratic primary brought to mind a question I’ve been kicking around for a while.  What would be possible of Tea Parties competed in Democratic primaries?

Nationally, there is no question that the Tea Party movement has made a difference in restraining the growth of government since 2010 when the Republican Party took back the House of Representatives.   On the plus side, the Tea Party Caucus has restrained the Obama/Pelosi/Reed agenda.  On the down side, an argument could be made that if not for 2012 Tea Party victories in the senatorial primaries in Missouri and Indiana the GOP would be two seats closer to controlling the Senate. There would have been less “war on women” fodder for the liberal media and Democratic machine to use in defeating Mitt Romney in the presidential election.

Tea Parties boast that they stayed home in 2012 rather than voting for Romney, thereby assuring Obama’s reelection.  There are some Tea Parties campaigning for conservatives to withhold their votes in 2016 if the GOP does not nominate a candidate that meets their approval.

Tea Parties have had some success in Republican primaries that have resulted in losses of “safe” Republican seats in general elections.  Delaware in 2010, and Missouri and Indiana in 2012.  If Tea Party conservatives really don’t vote in general elections rather than choosing between “the lesser of two evils,” the are assuring the the greater of two evils wins.

Why not take the battle to the Democrats?  Why fight only with “RINOs” and then surrender the general elections to the Democrats?

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Curley to run for Monmouth GOP Chairman

Freeholder John Curley

Freehold, April 1 –Monmouth County Freeholder John P. Curley announced this morning that he will seek the Chairmanship of the Monmouth County Republican Organization when the GOP County Committee convenes to reorganize on June 10.  Curley urged current Chairman John O. Bennett, III to not seek a second term.

“Throughout my public service I have promised to bring my experience in career proven business practices to place in making Monmouth County an affordable place to live and do business.  We have made great strides and are in better shape that most counties in the country, but we can do better,” Curley said.

“We must measure our success not against the mediocrity of other government entities or other political organizations, but against the requirements of the people we serve.   We must stamp out the remnants of the culture of cronyism from our party and make service our sole focus.

“When I was elected Freeholder in 2009 I brought forth a 23 point plan to create greater efficiency and reduce the size of government.  This has been a work in progress slowed by bureaucratic inertia and political cronyism.  We can do better and we can do better faster.  I will provide the leadership to bring the Monmouth GOP and Monmouth’s county and municipal governments into the 21st century.”

“We know the Democrats are going to attack us this year based upon the Lucas and Brookdale/Burnham scandals.  I am the Republican who brought those scandals to the prosecutors and ultimately, the perpetrators to justice.  If I am leading the Monmouth GOP, the Democrats attacks will ring hollow.  The attacks will be laughable.”

” Chairman Bennett has had a distinguished career as an Assemblyman, Senator, Senate President and Acting Governor. When John ran for Chairman two years ago, he said he promised to remove perceived and real conflicts from County politics and said serving as Chairman would be a nice way for him to cap off his career.

“I thank Chairman Bennett for his service and urge him to go out on top.”

Curley sent his first mailer to members of the County Committee this week.  He promises a passionate and relentless campaign.

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Red Bank GOP Won’t Challenge Menna For Mayor

Red Bank Mayor Pat Menna

Barring an Independent candidate entering the fray in June, Red Bank Mayor Pasquale “Pat” Menna will be reelected to a third term leading the borough in November unopposed. The Red Bank Republicans have not nominated a candidate to oppose Menna.

But that doesn’t mean the Red Bank GOP has given up on the strides they made last fall when Cindy Burham broke the Democratic grip on the governing body of 6 council members and the mayor and Sean DiSomma came within 1o2 votes of winning a second seat for the GOP.

DiSomma was subject to a malicious smear campaign, over a traffic ticket, by Monmouth Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal in the final week of the 2013 campaign.

DiSomma is running again this year.  He is joined on the ticket by Brian Hanlon, a former member of the borough’s park and recreation commission.

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Middletown Democratic TC Candidate Lives in Rumson?

One of the Middltetown Democrats candidates for Township Committee says he lives in Rumson.

Criminal defense attorney George Mardinly’s facebook page lists his home as Rumson.

More interesting that Mardinly’s address exaggeration (he actually lives in the graceful Locust section of Middletown, on the north side of the Navesink) is his history of political giving.  Mardinly contributed $2700 to Republican Senator Jennifer Beck’s 2013 reelection campaign and $2000 to Senator Joe Kyrillos’s 2012 U.S. Senate race against Democratic U.S.Senator Bob Menendez.

Maybe Mardinly is angling to be a Judge. Kyrillos and Beck are both members of the New Jersey Senate Judiciary committee and have senatorial courtesy in the

Patrick Short knows he lives in Middletown

appointment of Superior Court Judges in Monmouth County.  Or maybe he just likes Republican legislators.

Neither Middletown Democratic Chairman Don Watson or Monmouth Democratic County Vin Gopal were available to comment of Mardinly’s political giving.

Former Township Committeeman Patrick Short is the Democrats other candidate. Short was elected in 2006 in the wake of Operation Bid rig, and was defeated by Steve Massell in 2009 in the first Christie landslide.  Short ran for Assembly in 2011, losing to Declan O’Scanlon and Amy Handlin.

Short and Mardinly will face off against Republican incumbents Mayor Stephanie Murray and Committeeman Tony Fiore in November.

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Jacobson has his eye on Beck’s Senate seat

Dan Jacobson

Former Assemlyman Dan Jacobson, publisher of the triCityNews weekly newspaper and AsburyParkSun hyper-local news website, launched his campaign to return to the legislature last week with his tCN column urging Senate Jennifer Beck to run for governor.

Jacobson served one term in the General Assembly, 1990-1991.  He was swept out of office, along with the Democratic majority in the 1991 election over Governor Florio’s $2 billion tax increase, including sales taxes on toilet paper and food.  In 2011 Jacobson registered as a Republican in order to challenge then Senator Sean Kean for the 11th district Senate nomination in the GOP primary.  But the legislative redistricting commission foiled Jacobson’s plans by moving Kean’s hometown of Wall out of the 11th district into the 30th, and moving Red Bank, Beck’s hometown into the 11th.

Jacobson didn’t want to run against Beck.  They’re friends and agree on most issues. And Beck’s political stardom is one of Jacobson’s major journalistic accomplishments. Just ask him.  Jen Beck never even would have been elected to the Red Bank Borough Council if not for Dan Jacobson pumping her up in the triCityNews.

So Jacobson ran a pax-on-both houses Independent race for Assembly in 2011 to make a point.  2304 voters, 3%, got the point and have long since forgotten it.  Obviously his heart wasn’t in the Assembly race.  He really wants to be in the Senate, but he doesn’t want to run against Beck.

The obvious solution is for Beck to step up and run for governor.  Jacobson rightly argues that the NJ GOP doesn’t have a viable alternative for a post-Christie candidate.   The NJGOP is actually weaker now than it was before Christie was elected in 2009.

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