APP writes good editorial about Sharpe James case

This is a great editorial from the APP. In my opinion, partisanship has become a luxury the New Jersey taxpayer cannot afford. Whether it is Essex County with its Democratic Machine or "machines" anywhere else, abuse of government office is a Garden State joke, and an old one. New Jerseyans often clearly see corrupt politicians in front of them, in full display, and do nothing. Perhaps the standard bearer for this idea is former Newark Mayor Sharpe James, once referred to by some people as "mayor for life" of the state's largest city.

It would be wrong to try Mr. James in the media, as I am sure a legal venue will work just fine.

Rutgers Football dedicates a site to Heisman candidate

RUTGERS FOOTBALL has put up an official site for 2007 Heisman Trophy candidate Ray Rice. Click on the headline and go there. Click on the headline and go there.

Banfield, Pt. 2

Banfield, Pt. II

Banfield, Pt. 1

This is Part I of Banfield, outside of Town Hall.

Letter in APP discusses WTC air quality

There is a letter in today's APP, by Atlantic Highlands' Holly Hall Kluck, about WTC-related breathing ailments. Ms. Kluck is assessing blame on former EPA head Christine Todd Whitman and the Bush White House for saying the air at the site was safe. I agree about the Whitman part of that blame.

Well, the air quality at the site was treated like some PR gimmick by the EPA, and Mrs. Whitman is doing a dance and should step up to the plate and accept blame. I don't think it was the White House's fault (even though she's saying things were re-written by the White House). Hey, she was the EPA chief.

She was the one with the job, the desk and the responsibility. Her putting the blame on anyone else, or side-stepping her role in this blunder that has harmed so many people is disingenuous at best.

Rutgers Football gets Wilson's attention

The Rutgers Football Program recently received a visit from top prospect Christian Wilson. Click on the headline and check it out.

TRT: McGreevey ex-wife comes to Red Bank

Two River Times Editor Eileen Moon penned a nice piece about Dina Matos McGreevey's recent appearance at the Molly Pitcher Inn. Click on the headline to go there.

Burglary being investigated on Polly Way

PRESS RELEASE

MIDDLETOWN TWP. POLICE DEPARTMENT

Prepared by Det. Lt. Joseph C. Capriotti


The Middletown Township Police Department is investigating a burglary to a residence on Polly Way in Middletown that occurred some time between July 1st and July 10th while the residents were on vacation. Upon their return home they discovered the entire house had been ransacked and a vehicle in the garage had been vandalized with large scratch marks.

Corporal William Kennelly conducted the initial investigation which revealed entry to the home was made by forcing a locked window. The residents are in the process of compiling a list of missing item from the house. Detective Paul Shanley and Detective William Strohkirch are assigned to conduct the follow up investigation.

Catholic church comes out with a new ruling for faithful

The Washington Post has just published this Reuters piece on Catholicism that is interesting. It's always easier for writers to find disagreement rather than common ground.

I am sort of left with the impression that the writer, Mr. Phil Stewart, was looking for controversy. I think it's an important topic to read about, but also believe it could have been done a little less sensationally.

Click on the headline to go there.

APP publishes nice piece about Keyport

APP staffer Kevin Penton wrote a good piece about the annual Keyport fair. Click on the headline and go there.

Sailboat stolen from backyard in Middletown

PRESS RELEASE

MIDDLETOWN TWP. POLICE DEPARTMENT

Prepared by Detective Lt. Joseph C. Capriotti


The Middletown Township Police Department is investigating the theft of a sailboat from the backyard of a home on Main Street in the Port Monmouth section of the township. The owner of the sailboat reported to Corporal Bernie Chenoweth that his sailboat was taken between the late evening hours of July 8th and early morning hours of July 9th. The boat is described as a 12 foot, white fiberglass Sunfish sailboat with Connecticut registration numbers affixed to the hull. Anyone who may have information about the theft of the sailboat is asked to call the Middletown Twp. Police Department at 732 615-2100. Detective First Class Jeffrey Barner is assigned to conduct the follow up investigation.

Wanted: Candidate releases

As a note here, if any candidates would like to send in press releases for publication on the blog, please feel free. Political parties and affiliations have aboslutely nothing to do with what gets published here.

Goldstein pens story about potential rate hikes

NJBIZ reporter Scott Goldstein works the statehouse beat for his publication. In the July 9 edition of NJBIZ, in a story titled "Corzine Likely To Seek Higher Tolls," it discusses how drivers could pay more under a forthcoming monetization plan.

In his story, Goldstein spoke with Philip Kirschner, president of the New Jersey Business and Industry Assn. Mr. Kirschner was quoted in the piece as saying, "We have been led to believe they are going to propose toll hikes that are close to inflation increases, somewhere in the neighborhood of 2.5 percent to 4 percent. If that's true, reaction will be muted. Increases higher than that will be tough for both business people and residents to swallow. They will want to know what they are going to get for it."

The story appears on Page 3, and jumps to Page 10, and it's worth the reading. This is a well-researched and written piece that deserves some attention. Click on the headline to go to www.njbiz.com.

Changes to the dictionary

Click on the headline and hold onto your seats about how the language is changing.

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES TO HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE AT TOWN HALL ON JULY 16

MEDIA ALERT

For Immediate Publication

July 9, 2007

POC: Joe Caliendo,
Chairman, Middletown Democrats
8 Daniel Drive, Middletown, NJ 07748
Tel: 732-299-6470/Email: joe_caliendo@yahoo.com

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES TO HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE AT TOWN HALL ON JULY 16

MIDDLETOWN TOWNSHIP (MONMOUTH COUNTY, NJ): Middletown Democrats for Township Committee Sean Byrnes and Janet
Moscuzza will be taking part in a press conference outside of Middletown Town Hall at 7 p.m. on Monday, July 16th.

The press conference will be taking place in the vicinity of the North Entrance to the Middletown Town Hall and will be hosted by Middletown school board member and 13th District Assembly candidate Patricia Walsh.

The public and media are invited to attend the press conference, which will be about 25 minutes long. Candidates will answer questions from the public and the press following their presentation.

Other dignitaries expected to attend include 13th District Senate candidate Leonard Inzerillo.

For more information, call Middletown Democratic Chairman Joe Caliendo at (732) 299-6470.

###

Summer is going to be rocking in Atlantic Highlands

Atlantic Highlands, NJ – Summer is a “Rockin’” time in Atlantic Highlands. Atlantic Highlands will have music Saturday nights on First Avenue in July and August from 6:30-9pm. While you are listening to live music stroll the town to check out the “Rockin’ First Avenue Businesses”. Many businesses throughout First Avenue will decorate their windows with their favorite music genre.

Atlantic Highlands Chamber of Commerce combined forces this year with the Atlantic Highlands Council of the Arts to present the 3^rd annual “Music on First”. The line up is a great so, Check it out – Write down the dates!

July 14th - Solo guitar- David Crowton, eclectic finger-style guitar

July 21st - Jazz--Sergio DuBois, piano and Gary Mazzaroppi, bass

July 28th - "Drifter"-Outlaw Country

August 4th - Country/Folk/Bluegrass --"Firelight", featuring Jeanne O'Neill,

Wendy Bartel and Jimmy Bentley

August 11th - Singer/Songwriter Mary McCrink, guitar/vocals

All music is free and provided for your entertainment as you stroll the Avenue and get to know the town.

Atlantic Highlands is the “Jewel of the Bayshore”. It houses many eclectic stores, great restaurants and a marina fit for walking with breathtaking views of NY. So make a point to enjoy an evening of fun and a family atmosphere like no other. There really is no other town like it on the Jersey Shore! For directions and more information contact the Atlantic Highlands Chamber of Commerce, 732-872-8711 or visit us on the web at www.atlantichighlands.org.

Blue Jersey posts on Al Gore

Blue Jersey posted a piece about Al Gore. I want to go on the record about that. If someone wants to be a presidential candidate, they should have announced it by now, in my opinion. An intelligent guy, no doubt, Mr. Gore seems like someone who has something to say, but if that something is "I wanna be president," then it should have been awhile ago.

Moscuzza joins MT ticket

Middletown Democratic Candidate for Township Committee Janet Moscuzza at a recent Democratic event, held at the American Legion on Route 36.

The Banfield Cultural Arts Center...yes, again

The Banfield Cultural Arts Center (2002-date): The project was begun when the Cultural Arts Commission pushed the purchase of the building, which happened to be owned by a major Republican contributor to GOP political campaigns. The building was pretty much falling apart, but the township bought it anyway and then-Mayor Rosemarie Peters declared the building "structurally sound." This was despite the fact that, after the building was bought, it was pretty much ripped apart and rebuilt.

OK, the plan was for private contributions to mingle with public money to make a venue in town that was supposed to have something to do with artistic culture (not plowing roads, not clearing branches from the street, not cleaning up public parks that have been rundown...culture). I want to make note that artistic culture isn't hard to find in this area: Broadway and most of the notable galleries on the planet are across the river, Red Bank is over the bridge, and the state theater (not to mention the George Street and Crossroads theaters) are all in New Brunswick (about a half-hour away).

So the private contributions didn't work out, and the town bonded for the whole thing(even though they have a ton of room they're already not using at Croydon Hall). The town says the total cost was like $6.5 million. But they aren't willing to talk about the legal fees it took for the town to build this (there was a lawsuit and some legal messes through the years). Thus, without reliable information (since the town won't give it) about how much money that part of the deal soaked up, some folks, myself included started thinking the whole thing was probably closer to $9 million. Of course, my mind is open about the legal fees and I could be wrong about that total number but since the government refuses to say how much money went into the legal part of this then it's hard to gauge.

Now, when Banfield was being built, some people (I was one) was asking for the business plan for the thing. Since so much public money was going into it, then I thought there must be a plan for the township to make that money back and then some because they took out a 30-year bond to pay for the construction.

But there was no business plan. Then, when it was opened, the town leased it to a community group for $1 a year. It employed someone from the township to be a director of some kind, and they gave the building a liquor license. The questions I've always had is why the taxpayer is paying for this, what are they getting out of it, who is paying off this note they took and why does anyone need liquor at this place?

After all that, just what was this Banfield thing good for? It was GREAT for Middletown GOP Boss Pete Carton's firm, which got the bonding, for the Republican contractors, lawyers and good ol' boys that turned a dollar. How does that save any taxpayer one buck or do one thing for the citizenry? It doesn't.

For questions I've raised about Banfield and some other stuff, people have had some hard things to say about me. Well, that's just how it goes. I guess I'm not going to be filling my refrigerator door up with Christmas cards this year.

Caption: An example of early American construction at the Jamestown settlement during the 17th century,

Post pens piece about Miss New Jersey

Miss New Jersey is a Howell girl, Amy Palumbo, 22. Right now, there is some anonymous person on the Internet threatening her with exposing some pictures she had posted on a Facebook site she had. Well, there's intrigue o' plenty.

The Internet and anonymity. It has been abused. It has caused hardships for people when abused. And an argument that it shouldn't exist, on many levels, has merit. But in banning anonymity with a broad brush, it's possible to throw the baby out with the bathwater. America has to be the freest nation on the earth, despite the abuses that will sometimes occur and have to be ironed out.

But in spite of the frustrations, we still live in America and everything that means (from 1776 to right now). Yet there must be a way for bloggers, posters and the like to face the accountability of their actions in a responsible way. I applaud Ms. Palumbo for not being a victim to this type of person and not surrendering a crown I am sure she worked very hard to win. And it is with the determination of people like her that this issue of Internet abuse will one day be laid to rest in a way that is reasonable and responsible.

Click on the headline and go to the feature in the NY Post.

Caption: This photo is from Colonial Williamsburg and has nothing to do with the post. I just liked the photo.