Hurricane Sandy victims make do in trailers as they wait to rebuild (via NJ.com)
Tina Napalo lived in a bungalow-style house on Fourth Street in Union Beach for more than 20 years. “I didn’t have everything,” said the 40-year-old mother of four, but, “it took me a long time to get what I had.” Then Hurricane Sandy hit.…
Menendez Rebuts Christie Over Blame for Stalled Sandy Relief Aid (via NJSpotlight)
Who is to blame for the slow pace of New Jersey’s recovery from superstorm Sandy? Gov. Chris Christie blames federal red tape and regulations for holding up the distribution of aid money to storm victims in New Jersey. But New Jersey’s senior U.S.…
The problem is, they’ve already gotten special treatment
Tesla Motors, the manufacturer and retailer of electric powered cars, boasts on its website that it is “redefining the way cars are sold.”
They’ve been selling new cars in an unconventional way in New Jersey for one, two or four years, depending on who is telling the truth. They have a problem now, because the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission suddenly adopted what Tesla is calling a “new rule” that is consistent with decades old law allowing only franchised new car dealerships to sell new cars in New Jersey.
Instead of visiting a new car dealership where you test drive a car, haggle with a salesperson, wait for the salesperson to come back from pretending to talk to his/her manager, make a deal, get passed off to the business manager who bumps your interest rate, tries to sell you undercoating, credit insurance and an extended warranty and then wait a while longer to drive home in your new car, you can’t buy a car at Tesla’s two stores in New Jersey.
Tesla’s New Jersey stores are inside the Short Hills Mall in Short Hills and the Garden State Plaza Mall in Paramus. You can’t get your new electric car at one of those stores. You can’t even order it at the store. You can only look at a car and talk about it. If you want to buy one, you have to order it online and wait for it to be built in California before you take delivery. If you want to test drive one, you have to an request an appointment online. It might take a day or two for a representative to get back to you with an appointment. Test drives and new car deliveries are done out of the company’s service facility in Springfield.
Posted: March 12th, 2014 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: Christie Administration, Economy, Motor Vehicle Commission, MVC, NJ State Legislature | Tags: Assemblyman John Wisniewski, Loretta Weinberg, Motor Vehicle Commission, MVC, New car sales, Tesla, Tesla Motors | 9 Comments »Monmouth County Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal just can’t help himself from practicing the “politics of yesterday,” as Governor Chris Christie said of him last year.
Friday evening on the Political Roundtable segment of the NJTV News with Mike Schneider, Gopal reacted to the news that the federal government had cleared Christie Administration of any errors or wrong doing with the AshBrit contract for cleaning up much of New Jersey after Superstorm Sandy by sticking to the Democratic/Star Ledger talking points. “The bigger issue is,” Gopal said, “why was so much money wasted in the process?” “Costs were higher,” he said, without saying higher than what. Certainly they were not higher than what the Army Corp of Engineers charged New York for their clean up.
What Gopal didn’t say is that he was busy helping AshBrit get business in the aftermath of Superstrom Sandy.
Click here to read an email Gopal sent me three weeks after Sandy hit asking for my help in introducing AshBrit’s agent, Laura Matos of M Public Affairs, a veteran of the Corzine administration, to Highlands Mayor Frank Nolan.
GOP political consultant Chris Russell joked on the segment that he was waiting for apologies from all the Democrats who criticized Christie over the AshBrit contract. Gopal should have apologized on the spot, especially since he was an active participant in recruiting municipalities to sign with the clean up company.
I don’t know if Gopal got paid for helping AshBrit get business but it is a safe bet that Matos and her fellow Corzine administration veterans at M Public Affairs did. Vin should ask Matos why the AshBrit contract cost so much.
I didn’t get paid. Nolan had Highlands almost entirely cleaned up without AshBrit before Vin reached out to me.
Posted: March 7th, 2014 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: Chris Christie, Christie Administration, Frank Nolan, Superstorm Sandy, Vin Gopal | Tags: AshBrit, Chris Christie, Chris Russell, Christie Administration, Frank Nolan, Highlands, Laura Matos, M Public Affairs, Mike Schneider, NJTV, Superstorm Sandy, Vin Gopal | 4 Comments »
Sharon from Toms River asks the last question at Governor Chris Christie’s Town Hall Meeting in Toms River. March 4, 2014
After Governor Chris Christie gave his customary warning to the last questioner at Town Hall meetings…don’t ask a stupid question or the crowd will turn on you…he called on Sharon from Toms River.
While the announced topic of the Town Hall was Sandy Recovery, Christie told the crowd of over 550 jammed in to the club house of a senior citizens’ community that they were welcome to ask him about anything.
Sharon brought up ObamaCare and the crowd started to boo. “What can we do?” Sharon asked after expressing her healthcare concerns to the governor over the boos.
“Elect a new president,” Christie said a matter-a-factually. The crowd erupted spontaneously. 550 senior citizens jumped out for their seats as if they had bed bugs and cheered Christie’s answer for a good minute, maybe two.
Christie said his answer was not a matter of partisanship, him being Republican and President Obama being a Democrat, but a matter of what works and what doesn’t work. The governor noted that Obama keeps delaying the implementation of parts of ObamaCare, “because they are not working.”
Posted: March 4th, 2014 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: Chris Christie, Christie Administration, Superstorm Sandy | Tags: Chris Christie, Christie Town Hall, Sandy recovery, Toms River | 1 Comment »
Port Authority officials: Battle over toll hikes was all for show (via NJ.com)
On Aug. 5, 2011, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey issued a jaw-dropping proposal to immediately raise bridge and tunnel tolls by $4 for E-ZPass subscribers and $7 for cash customers, followed by another increase in 2014. The proposed hikes…
Housing group: NJ won’t release integrity monitor reports on Sandy contracts (via NJ.com)
A housing advocate group today said New Jersey has declined to release integrity oversight monitor reports on Hurricane Sandy contracts that are required by a state law passed last spring but state officials have contended those reports aren’t yet…
Chris Christie promises to take ‘extreme measures’ on pension if Democrats don’t play ball (via NJ.com)
LONG HILL — The day after his budget address, an upbeat Gov. Chris Christie returned to a message that has worked for him in the past: State finances are in trouble and only he can help. The Republican governor urged Democrats in the state Legislature…
Governor Chris Christie came charging into Trenton pledging to turn it upside down in 2010. He made a left turn onto the Boulevard of Compromise in 2011, cruised the boulevard through 2012 and rode the waves of Sandy through 2013. Now he’s hit a dead end on the bridgegate to nowhere.
The message of the FY 2015 Budget Address is ‘No Change.” Christie warned of the looming crisis we sent him to Trenton to fix and offered no solutions. No reductions in government. An increase in spending. Christie lamented that he couldn’t spend more because of commitments made to people who are no longer working and to repay money that has already been spent.
Christie meekly suggested that more pension and benefit reforms are necessary in order to grow the state government. State Senate President Steve Sweeney said, “We’re not doing it.”
Posted: February 26th, 2014 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: Chris Christie, Christie Administration, New Jersey State Budget | Tags: 2015 New Jersey Budget Address, Chris Christie | 5 Comments »Governor Chris Christie will deliver his annual budget address to the legislature at 2pm this afternoon. The address can be viewed via livestream provided by NJTV here:
“A Choice of Attitude” is the theme of Governor Chris Christie’s FY 2015 budget address.
Christie will argue that state government spending as proposed in his budget is $2.2 billion lower than the fiscal 2008 state budget, save for the $2.25 billion pension payment budget for this year. He will call further pension reforms, arguing that the massive obligation to state employees prevents the government from spending on education, university research, energy, the environment and infrastructure. He will argue that pensions and entitlements must be reformed in order to prevent a looming crisis.
Christie says new taxes are not an option.
Excerpts of Christie’s address as released by the Governor’s office is below:
A 5th Balanced Budget Without Raising Taxes That Makes The Largest Pension Payment Ever
Posted: February 25th, 2014 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: Chris Christie, Christie Administration, New Jersey State Budget | Tags: 2015 New Jersey Budget Address, Governor Chris Christie | 1 Comment »© Copyright 2026 | MoreMonmouthMusings | All Rights Reserved