Iran, world powers agree nuclear deal

Iran, world powers agree nuclear deal (via AFP)

World powers on Sunday reached an agreement with Iran over its nuclear programme, their chief negotiator Catherine Ashton and Iran’s foreign minister said. “We have reached agreement between E3+3 and Iran,” Ashton’s spokesman Michael Mann quoted her…

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Kids ride free on Seastreak

Children aged 12 or under cruise to New York on Seastreak for free when accompanied by a full fare paying adult, under a promotion that lasts through Memorial Day by the sponsor of our weekly Things to do in Monmouth County feature.

Seastreak is encouraging families to explore New York during the winter months. During these trips, Seastreak’s ferry service from Highlands and Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey will be docking at Pier 11 and at East 35th Street in New York City, which will provide access to attractions such as Grand Central Station’s Train Show or Radio City Music Hall during the holidays.

The scenery on the cruise to New York from Sandy Hook Bay is itself a fabulous attraction.

Seastreak has 13 departure times from New Jersey to New York on weekdays and five departure times on weekends.  A complete schedule is available online at http://seastreak.com/nynjschedules.aspx.

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JFK

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Bennett: Supreme Court Decision Does Not Apply To His Oceanport Job

Ethics Expert Disagrees

John Bennett. Photo credit: Rhoda Chodosh

Monmouth County Republican Chairman John O. Bennett said that a State Supreme Court Opinion written in 2000 by Justice Daniel J. O’Hern that states that the positions of Borough Attorney and Borough Administrator may not be held by the same person does not apply to his job in Oceanport.

In re ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON PROFESSIONAL ETHICS, DOCKET NO. 18-98, the Court ruled 5-2, to affirm an ACPE opinion that Gregory C. Hart could not serve the Bergen County Borough of Old Tappan as both attorney and administrator.

We respect the wishes of the Borough to engage for its day to day management an attorney in whom it has reposed great trust and confidence. Likewise, we respect the attorney who is certain that his integrity would assure an unfettered exercise of judgment in either capacity. Yet we must fashion a rule that will apply equally as well in more demanding circumstances, as in a fast-growing suburban community. It asks too much for an individual to be able to give objective advice to the municipality without being materially limited by the “lawyer’s own interest” as the subject of the inquiry.

For these reasons, we hold that one attorney may not hold both the position of municipal attorney and clerk-administrator for the same municipality. As modified, the advisory opinion of the ACPE is affirmed.

In a phone interview on Tuesday, Bennett said he became aware of the Opinion after his appointment as Acting Administrator in Oceanport earlier this month, but that he did not believe it would prevent him from holding both positions on a permanent basis.

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Christie Administration Reflects on Sandy Recovery Progress and Challenges

Christie Administration Reflects on Sandy Recovery Progress and Challenges (via NJSpotlight)

When Sandy made landfall last October, displacing 120,000 from their homes, NJ Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Richard Constable said his department took immediate action to provide shelters and assist towns with their budgetary problems…

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Oceanport Councilman Resigns To Take County Job

William Johnson, right and Oceanport Councilman Joe Irace. Photo credit: Rhoda Chodosh

William Johnson resigned his seat on the Oceanport Borough Council on November 1, due to his recent employment by Monmouth County.  Johnson’s resignation was first reported by LittleSilver-Oceanport Patch.

Johnson is the Monmouth County Recycling Coordinator, working out of the County Reclamation Center in Tinton Falls.  Prior to his employment by the county, Johnson was a loan officer at Colonial American Bank.

Municipal elected officials from Monmouth County towns are banned from employment with the county due to a Resolution proposed by Assemblywoman Amy Handlin, then a Freeholder, in 2005.  The resolution was passed unanimously by the all Republican Freeholder Board in April of 2005 in the wake of the Operation Bid Rig raid that February wherein numerous county employees and municipal elected officials were arrested on corruption charges.

Employees who held elective office at the time the resolution was passed were grandfathered.  County Administrator Teri O’Connor said this morning “there might be a few” employees still grandfathered and holding elected office, but she wasn’t aware of any.

Freeholder Director Tom Arnone said that Johnson applied for the job through a posting on the County’s website, and that the appointment was not a matter of political patronage.

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Republican Legislators Unlikely To Override Christie

The eyes of New Jersey’s political junkies on are Trenton this afternoon to see if the public rift between Governor Chris Christie and the Kean family will lead to the first override of a Christie veto.

The Pig Gestation Bill is on the Senate calendar for an override vote this afternoon.   The bill, which would prohibited NJ pig farmers from caging gestating pigs in a manner such that they can not move or lay down for most of their lives passed both houses of the legislature overwhelmingly last spring.  Christie vetoed the bill, noting that the State Supreme Court upheld the Humane Standards that the State Board of Agriculture and  Department of Agriculture have set and enforced in accordance with the 1995 Administrative Procedures Act. In his veto message, Christie said he was confident the Board and Department would continue to monitor the humane treatment of gestating pigs, and that bill would inappropriately criminalize a practice that is not opposed by the American Veterinary Medical Association nor the American Association of Swine Veterinarians.

Christie critics and skeptics have said that the governor vetoed the bill with an eye toward the 2016 Iowa Republican Presidential Caucuses.   Iowa is the largest producer of pork in the United States.

Don’t bet on an override, warn legislators who spoke to MMM on background.

As a matter of policy, since they voted for the bill last spring, the Republicans we talked to have learned that it is the Democrats supporting the bill, not Christie, who are playing presidential politics. The bill would not impact the quality of life for New Jersey pigs. No one knows of at New Jersey pig farmer that uses the gestation crates that the bill would prohibited.

As a matter of politics, New Jersey Legislative Republicans are united with the governor, the rift over this move to oust Tom Kean, JR as Senate Minority Leader notwithstanding.  They are not going to weaken Christie’s negotiating position with the Trenton Democrats over a bill that has no impact on what is happening in New Jersey.

“Things are back to normal,” one legislator said, “The governor underestimated the trust, respect and affection the Senate Caucus has for Tom (Kean, Jr), and mishandled that situation. But when your friend makes a mistake, you don’t trash the friendship.”

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Knowing where the money goes

For too many of us in New Jersey, it is not hard to imagine what life is like after a catastrophic storm.  We just have to remember what we were doing one year ago.

We also know the difference between charitable acts and contributions that met immediate needs and those that meet long term recovery needs.  Some of us will never forget the kindness and generosity we gave or received immediately after Sandy;  meals, supplies, shelter, a shower, a place to charge a cell phone, cleaning out a destroyed home.  Some of us are still filling out forms in the hopes of getting needed long term recovery aid.

As we confront, or deflect, the images coming from the Philippines in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan, we are fortunate to have a way to contribute that will make an immediate impact to the survival of 27 orphans.

Street Kids Philippine Missions is a orphanage with 501 C tax status run by our friend Ernesto Cullari’s mother, Lee.  Lee and her husband Matthew founded the orphanage in February or 2010 in Bohol.  They started caring for 6 children.  Now they are raising 27 children.   In 2012, Lee and Matthew cared for the children with a budget of $2000.00 per month. Amazing.

Today, in the aftermath of Haiyan, they need food, clean water and clothes and power. They are purifying their water with chemical tablets.

StreetKidsPM is hoping to raise $30,000 to recover from Haiyan. $1,111 per child.  They need water purification equipment, generators, food and clothing.

Please make a one time contribution, or enroll to make  monthly contributions to StreetKidsPM here.

Also, Cullari is holding a fundraiser on Wednesday December 4th from 6PM till 9PM at SeaGrass Restaurant in Occean Grove.  Tickets to the fundraiser are only $50 and can be purchased here.

For questions or to make offline reservations to the fundraiser, call Ernesto at 732-504-4506.

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Pelosi: When the website works, we’ll see what is in the bill, and we’ll like it

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Kean-Christie Wounds Are Festering

While Trenton Democrats are planning their aggressive “lame -duck” agenda with an eye on making Governor Chris Christie’s 2016 prospects more difficult, New Jersey’s two most popular Republicans, Christie and former Governor Tom Kean, are letting hurt feelings over the attempted ouster of Tom Kean, JR as Senate Minority Leader dominate the news on the Republican side of the aisle.

In case you missed it or didn’t care, on the heels of his landslide reelection with no coattails, Christie made it known that he wanted Senator Kevin O’Toole to replace Kean, JR as the Republican leader in the upper house of the legislature.  Junior got wind of the coup attempt and rallied the majority of the caucus to stick with him.  The day after the election, Christie publicly expressed his commitment to continue working with Democratic Senate President Steve Sweeney and declined to comment on who the leader of the Republican minority in the Senate should be.  Junior released a letter signed by 11 of the 16 Republican Senators that expressed their support of him.  The following morning, prior to the Republican caucus meeting to elect their leader, Christie summoned Junior and Republican Senators to his Statehouse office, in view of the press corps, to lobby for O’Toole taking over the minority leadership.

Junior fought back and 9 other Republican Senators stuck with him, giving him a 10-6 victory over O’Toole and giving Christie the first act of defiance from Republicans in four years.

Why did Christie want to oust Junior?  He’s not saying.  Speculation centers on two reasons; 1) Christie was doing Sweeney’s bidding in the Senate President’s ongoing feud with Junior for having the gall to try and win his seat in the Senate and 2) Christie wanted Junior to take the fall for Republicans not picking up any seats in the legislature.

After Junior retained his leadership post, he and O’Toole emerged together from the caucus meeting and put on happy faces to the press, pledging unity and to get to work on the people’s business.  That should have been the end of it.

But then Kean, SR started talking to reporters, expressing his frustration and disappointment with his mentee, Christie.  Kean SR’s comments were “tinged with bitterness” toward Christie, The Record’s Charles Stile wrote on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Kean, SR kept his disappointment with Christie in the news by granting an interview to The Star Ledger’s Matt Friedman wherein he placed the blame for the Democrats retaining the legislature squarely with the Governor.

“You assume that if the governor wins by 20 points or more you’d have coattails,” Kean said. “No governor I know in any state has won by 20 points and not had coattails.”

By Friday, the Kean-Christie story had seemed to blow over. But it had not.

Yesterday, The Associated Press’s Angela Delli Santi posted a story quoting Kean SR as being “as surprised as I’ve ever been in my life in politics,” and how disappointed he is that Christie has yet to call him or Junior, to mend fences.

None of this reflects well on Christie, the Keans or the NJ GOP.

And none of it will help Republicans, Christie and members of the legislature, continue to “turn Trenton upside down.”

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