We had a very busy year, Save Jerseyans, but if there are 13 stats from 2013 that will stay with me into 2014, these ones are at the top of my list:
13. 1,300,000,000 – how much more money the State of New Jersey decided to spend next year over this year.
12. 30,000 – about how many New Jersey and New York residents are still homeless 14-months after Hurricane Sandy made landfall.
11. 10,000,000,000 – the funds, representing only 1/5 of the total Sandy federal aid package, that have been disbursed to date.
10. 3,300 – the current rough number of New Jerseyans who have created an account at Healthcare.gov.
9. 800,000 – the approximate number of New Jersey residents who started 2013 with a health care plan that, thanks to Obamacare, will be cancelled by 2014.
The borough is advertising the borough administrator position on its website and on the League of Municipalities site. Applications were due last week, but the ads are still running.
Click to read ad
The Borough Attorney, Bennett became the Acting Administrator in early November after the previous Acting Administrator, Phil Huhn, stepped down. Kimberly Jungfer resigned as Borough Administrator and Clerk to take the same job in neighboring Little Silver in June.
Bennett pitched the idea of being both the Borough Attorney and Administrator to Mayor Michael J. Mahon and the Council as a cost saving measure.
“It would be a win-win for everybody,” Bennett said, noting that the borough would save money in legal fees if he held both posts. He said he is not seeking pension credits or health benefits in the proposed position.
We have found the meanest red light in New Jersey. It was two years ago when Alice Henry had her first encounter with it and she still tries to avoid the intersection that made her $85 poorer. “I either try to go a different route, or I go and stop…
In the wake of last week’s carjacking that left a Hoboken attorney dead outside The Mall at Short Hills, Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura said today that it’s time for New Jersey’s shopping complexes to beef up security in parking lots and other…
NEWARK — When Basim Henry robbed a Union Township bank in November 2003, it was not hard to connect him to the crime. He had driven his white Pontiac to the bank on Morris Avenue, authorities said, and left it parked illegally on an adjacent side…
By Ted Sherman and James Queally/The Star-Ledger NEWARK — Nearly a week after 30-year-old Hoboken lawyer Dustin Friedland was gunned down in a deadly carjacking while returning to his vehicle in an upper level parking deck of the Mall at Short Hills…
MILLBURN — Four men have been arrested in the fatal shooting of a Hoboken lawyer during a carjacking outside the Mall at Short Hills on Sunday, according to the Essex County Prosecutor’s office. A press conference has been scheduled for 9 a.m. this…
Monmouth County Police Departments have been given grants to target drunk or impaired drivers this holiday season as part of a statewide “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” initiative, warned Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni and Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden.
The “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” initiative focuses on mobilizing police departments across the state during the holiday season in an effort to raise awareness about the dangers of drunk and impaired driving through concentrated enforcement activities. The 2012 holiday season “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” initiative resulted in 1,555 Driving While Intoxicated arrests statewide, with 42 of those arrests taking place in Monmouth County, between December 7, 2012 and January 2, 2013.
“The statistics are sobering enough. The holidays are a time to create lasting memories with your family and friends, not destroy family and friends who will be forced to recall the horrific death of a loved one who wasn’t sober and got behind the wheel of a vehicle,” Gramiccioni said.
“No family should have to face the death of another family member during the holiday season, or any time of the year for that matter. The message is clear: ‘Don’t Drink and Drive’, so the ‘Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over’ initiative should simply resonate with anyone who operates any motor vehicle this holiday season,” said Golden.
For the cost of a dinner or another round, get a ride home. You might be drunker than you think:
If confirmed by the State Senate, Moore will replace Daniel M. Kelly of Little Silver on the board. Kelly resigned last month due to professional commitments.
The Monmouth County Board of Taxation is comprised of four Republicans and three Democrats. Moore is taking a Democratic seat. The party of the incumbent governor holds the majority.
Matthew S. Clark, the Monmouth County Tax Administrator, said that the commissioners have a “broader, taller responsibility” than they have had in years past, as Monmouth is the first county in New Jersey to implement the Assessment Demonstration Program signed into law by Governor Christie in March. The Assessment Demonstration Program is “true property tax reform,” according to Clark, which includes online appeals and creates assessment precision. The online appeals process is a shared service that the Tax Board is offering to other counties to generate revenue and reduce the tax burden on Monmouth County property owners.
The commissioners hear tax appeal cases, certify property tax rates, certify the county’s equalization table, oversee the administration of county tax assessments, and certify the annual added assessments from Monmouth’s municipalities.
Commissioners on the Tax Board earn a salary of $18,000 per year. Clark did not know if new commissioners receive health benefits are part of their compensation. The Governor’s press office as yet to respond to an inquiry regarding health benefits for tax commissioners.
Over 5,000 people were killed and nearly 2,000 are still missing since Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines in early November. We can easily recall the devastation and the loss that occurred on the Jersey Shore following Hurricane Sandy. Many of us are still rebuilding lives, homes and businesses. Haiyan was the most violent storm to ever make landfall and only you can begin to imagine their suffering. On behalf of my mother Lee, my step dad Matt and the 27 orphans living under their care in Bohol, the Philippines, I thank you for recently coming to their aid in such a desperate time of need. Street Kids Philippine Missions will continue to meet the needs of these children because of your generosity.
Even before the storm, the Philippines was a place of both beauty and squalor. The Philippine Islands are home to many of the world’s most alluring beaches. Yet not far from the tourist attractions and the luxurious hotels are some of the filthiest shantytowns on earth.
Imagine a neighborhood constructed of trash and debris; with walls and roofs made of cardboard, tin and sheetrock. Pirated electricity from neighboring gated enclaves lights the dark and dingy nights, for the few foolish enough to reroute the current into their hand patched shack. Fires often ravage and raze shantytowns.
Not everyone who is poor or destitute lives in shantytowns. Entire families live on doorsteps, street benches, inside cardboard boxes erected on sidewalks. Many of these are former sales clerks, teachers or small business owners. In the Philippines, there are only rich and poor. Corruption, addiction, cronyism and the mindset of those who have lived under multi-generational poverty have seen to it that the middle-class does not grow roots and flourish.
