GOP U.S Senate nominee Steve Lonegan has sued the city of Newark for the release of Mayor Cory Booker’s expense records since he took office, because the city has failed to comply with the Lonegan campaign’s OPRA (Open Public Records Act) requests.
Newark Mayor Cory Booker has an “almost insurmountable” lead over former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan in their race to replace the late U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg in the October 16 special election, according to a Rutgers-Eagleton poll released this morning.
64% support Booker, 29% Lonegan and 6% are undecided.
56% of likely voters, including 44% of Republicans, don’t know enough about Lonegan to form an opinion. Voters who are familiar with the Republican are split 22%-22% in their favorable/unfavorable impressions of him.
Booker favorably impresses 63% of likely voters. 19% have an unfavorable impression of the Newark mayor. 17% say they are unfamiliar with him.
Rutgers-Eagleton surveyed 925 New Jersey adults, 814 of whom said they were registered voters. Of the registered voters, only 462 are likely to vote on the third Wednesday in October.
93% of Democrats, 52% of Independents and 19% of Republicans said they were voting for Booker. 90% of Liberals, 70% of Moderates and 20% of Conservatives said they were voting for Booker.
Polling Director David Redlawsk said Lonegan’s “most recent news highlights attacking Booker’s masculinity have been quite unflattering.” If Redlawsk asked a question about those recent news highlights, he did not report it or the results in the poll release.
Most of the Bayshore Tea Party Group’s members are not paying their $12 per month dues and Barbara Gonzalez is angry.
In an email sent to her membership obtained by MMM, Gonzalez, the group’s co-founder, laments the malaise that has fallen over many tea party groups and recounts how she and fellow co-founder Bob Gordon tried to keep members engaged; movie nights and events.
Admitting that she is not likely to be the named the queen of popularity or move members who have stopped paying dues to pony up, Gonzalez said she was “utterly disappointed” in her members who she finds totally dishonorable.
Gonzalez, Gordon and someone named Kathy will pay the remaining $5000 rent of the group’s Red Bank office out of their own pockets, because so few of the members are paying their $12 monthly dues.
Donna Jackson might be Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s biggest threat to being elected a U.S. Senator.
Councilwoman Mildred Crump and Teachers Union President Joe Del Grasso, the other stars of the above video from our friends at BookerFail, could be said to have their own political axes to grind with Booker. But the Mayor himself told the Star Ledger in 2010 that Jackson does not have a political agenda, she just cares about Newark.
She says the media and Newark’s government are hiding the city’s problems to give Booker political cover. She says Newark is worse since Booker became mayor. “Booker’s national profile is killing us,” Jackson said.
Last May, Jackson accurately predicted the coming outbreak in violence in Newark, during an impassioned rant before the city council wherein she also complained that Newark residents, “darkies” she called them, are not being employed at the new construction projects that Booker often touts. She calls Caucasians “clear people.”
Jackson says Newark’s mismanagement is intentionally designed to drive residents making less than $100,000 out of the city.
Jackson says she’s “anti-government, anti-government and everybody’s got to go.”
A Superstorm Sandy Fraud Task Force Investigation has resulted in the indictment of a Toms River man by a Monmouth County Grand Jury.
Acting Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni
Shane (aka Shaine) Wood, 48, the principle of Reliable Roofing and Siding, was charged in the four count indictment with providing a fraudulent insurance certificate and working as an unregistered contractor after state authorities revoked his registration, Acting Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni announced this afternoon.
Wood is charged with fourth degree counts of Forgery, Uttering a Forged Instrument, Failure to Register with the state Division of Consumer Affairs, and Failure to Provide a Written Contract. Fourth degree offenses carry a maximum 18-month prison term, if convicted.
Wood was arrested in July after an investigation by the Superstorm Sandy Fraud Task Force revealed he sub-contracted with a general contractor to perform roof repair work on a Monmouth Beach property in late-January 2013 as the principal of Reliable Roofing and Siding.
The general contractor required Wood’s Reliable Roofing and Siding to provide a Certificate of Liability Insurance reflecting Wood’s company was covered for New Jersey Workers’ Compensation Insurance. Wood transmitted a document purporting Reliable Roofing and Siding was covered by the John Hill Insurance Company, but later learned Wood supplied a fraudulent document according to the insurance company.
The general contractor contacted the Superstorm Sandy Fraud Task Force prompting the criminal investigation.
Wood was released after posting $10,000 bail, as set by Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Honora O’Brien Kilgallen.
The number of cases of mumps being investigated by the Monmouth County Health Department has jumped from 27 to 36. One case has been confirmed, according to a statement by the department.
“Individuals are continuing to come forward to report mumps-like symptoms,” County public health coordinator Michael Meddis said. “The median age of the individuals under investigation is 26. With the exception of one pre-school aged child, all of the individuals are adults and 39 percent of the cases involve females.”
The cases under investigation include individuals who have or had mumps-like symptoms as early as August 3. As in previous updates, most of the individuals under investigation have either been patrons or employees of D’Jais Bar and Grill in Belmar.
D’Jais voluntarily closed its doors to patrons last week. The Health Department provided cleaning and sanitizing recommendations to D’Jais management.
On Sunday, County Health Department nurses immunized 32 D’Jais employees with the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine. Several D’Jais employees submitted immunization records that were evaluated for age appropriate MMR immunization.
“If you believe that you may have been exposed to someone who has experienced mumps like symptoms, call the Monmouth County Health Department,” said Meddis. “Our public health nurses can answer your questions and evaluate your need for additional follow-up.”
The Monmouth County Health Department continues to ask that anyone who is experiencing swelling of salivary glands along with fever, headache, muscle aches, tiredness and loss of appetite should seek medical attention and call the Health Department at 732-431-7456.
Of the cases under investigation, individuals in Monmouth County are from Asbury Park, Belmar, Colts Neck, Farmingdale, Howell, Keyport, Long Branch, Matawan, Middletown, Neptune City, Tinton Falls and Wall. Individuals who reported hometowns from outside the county are from the New Jersey towns of Brick, Ogdensburg, Emerson, Fairfield, Jackson, Lawrenceville, Monmouth Junction, Point Pleasant, Saddle Brook, Waldrick, Warren, Whippany and Woodbridge. Individuals who reported out of state hometowns are from New York City, Philadelphia, Straussberg, PA and Port Saint Lucie, FL.
100 horses will follow Freeholder Lillian Burry down Main Street in Freehold Boro on Saturday morning, September 21.
Burry is the Grand Marshall of the second annual Open Space Pace Parade.
“It is quite an amazing sight to see a parade of more than 100 horses marching down Main Street in Freehold,” said Burry. “I am honored to serve as the Grand Marshal of this tremendous event that opens the Open Space Pace & Festival of Horses. It is a wonderful event for the whole family and I hope everyone will join me in the fun.”
The Open Space Pace and Festival of Horses will continue at Freehold Raceway. The day will include celebrity races, harness racing, pageantry, entertainment, vendors, demonstrations, food trucks, children’s activities and education. Following the last race of the day, at approximately 5 p.m., the Eddie Testa Band will take the stage. Afterward, there will be a live concert by Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, ending with a 27-minute fireworks display.
The inaugural Open Space Pace last September raised $14,000 for equine and agricultural non-profits while educating the public about the important role horses and horse racing play in creating and preserving open space in New Jersey.
Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) has proposed a solution to the use of chemical weapons in Syria that does not involve the United States bombing the country — the investigation and prosecution of those crimes against humanity.
Smith, New Jersey’s longest serving congressman and a well regarded champion of human rights, introduced a Concurrent Resolution last week that, if passed by both the House and Senate, would direct President Obama to work with the United Nations to set up a tribunal to investigate war crimes war crimes committed by the Syrian government and the rebel groups waging a civil war in the county.
In a interview with The Washington Post’sBrad Plumer, Smith, who has previously worked on war crimes tribunals involving Yugoslavia, Sierra Leone and Rwanda, criticizes the Obama targeting “20 year-olds who might be on an air force base” rather the actual perpetrators of use of sarin gas against the Syria people, be it the Assad regime or the rebels.
A tribunal would be a non-lethal alternative to a bombing campaign — which no one knows how long it will last. During the House hearing [on Wednesday], I asked Secretary Kerry: How do you define “limited”? How do you define “short duration”? And he didn’t answer. There’s no sense that bombing will end this war. No one is even remotely suggesting that. And I’m equally concerned about a strike where there are consequences that have or haven’t been anticipated that could occur.
Smith said the tribunal should convene immediately and that there in no need to wait for the end of the Syrian civil war.
Smith said that he asked Secretary of State John Kerry at a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee if the Obama administration had proof that the chemical weapons were deployed by the Assad regime. Kerry wouldn’t answer.
Smith said that he anticipated that Russia, China and the rest of the world community would support an investigative prosecutorial tribunal.
GOP U.S. Senate nominee Steve Lonegan said this afternoon that his Democratic opponent, Newark Mayor Cory Booker is afraid to admit his support of President Barack Obama’s desire to attack Syria.
“Mayor Booker claims he cannot say whether he will support or oppose President Obama’s proposed military attack on Syria allegedly because he has no access to classified information,” Lonegan said, calling that argument “as fake as T-Bone.”
“The American people have figured out very quickly that President Obama has not made the case that American interests are at stake in Syria,” Lonegan said. “Americans are sick of being the world’s policeman and sick of getting involved in domestic civil wars where there is no evidence that America’s national security is threatened.”
“Cory Booker is afraid to admit he supports the President’s proposed war in Syria,” Lonegan said, “so instead he attempts to hide behind the smokescreen of not having enough information. But people are on to the Mayor’s act now, and his refusal to speak out against the President’s war can only be interpreted as assent.”
T-Bone is a character in a parable that Booker used early in his political career, until the Star Ledger raised questions about the authenticity of talent. Booker claimed that T-Bone was a Newark drug dealer who once threatened his life and then a few year later pled with the mayor, in tears, to help him avoid prison. In published reports Booker has claimed that the character is both “1000% a real person” and “an archetype.”
Regarding Syria, Booker initially said he would not support a strike, then equivocated. Now he says he does not have enough information to say whether or not he would vote to authorize a military strike.
By Greg Kelly
