CNN: Menendez may face charges
A report issued by CNN Friday afternoon, as the Reporter was finishing production, said that the U.S. Justice Department is allegedly preparing corruption charges against U.S. Senator Robert Menendez. Menendez, one of the most powerful Democrats in the country, is a former mayor of Union City and Hoboken resident.
According to sources quoted by CNN, the Justice Department is preparing to bring criminal corruption charges against Menendez for allegedly helping promote the business interests of a Democratic donor in exchange for gifts.
The move apparently is prompted in part by statute of limitations that could keep the Justice Department from filing changes if the case is delayed.
The case allegedly involves Menendez relationship with Salomon Melgen, a Florida ophthalmologist, and in part on plane trips Menendez took in 2010 to the Dominican Republic as Melgen’s.
When the details emerged in 2013, Menendez reportedly paid back $58,000 to cover the costs of the trips, calling it an oversight.
Menendez has not yet responded to the CNN report, and when contacted by the Reporter on Friday, the staff said they are reviewing the details. – Al Sullivan
Hoboken highlighted as one of 45 resilient role model cities worldwide by UN
The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction has designated the City of Hoboken as a Role Model City of the Making Cities Resilient campaign for its flood risk management practices. These include plans to retain over a million gallons of stormwater runoff through green infrastructure.
Hoboken becomes one of 45 cities worldwide recognized as a Role Model City by the United Nations. It is only the second such role model city in the United States; the first was San Francisco. There are over 2,400 cities and towns worldwide participating in the campaign, including 73 capital cities, representing a collective population of 700 million people.
“We are honored to be recognized for our efforts to make Hoboken more resilient,” said Mayor Dawn Zimmer. “Through a multi-layered approach to resiliency, we are on the cusp of solving a more than century-old flooding problem.”
In a letter announcing the designation, German Velasquez of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction wrote: “Your city’s efforts in enhancing its physical infrastructure to improve its capacity in dealing with flood risks have been well-recognized. Moreover Hoboken’s attention to land use regulations and expansion as well as its efforts in informing public through the city website and social media have stood out as exemplary.”
The city of Hoboken is pursuing a variety of strategies to mitigate flood risk. This week, the City Council approved an application for low-interest financing to build the Southwest Park, which is also designed to hold over 200,000 gallons of rainwater, and funding to acquire 6 acres of land for a Northwest Resiliency Park, which will be designed to hold at least a million gallons of stormwater. Two weeks ago, the Council approved financing for Hoboken’s second wet weather pump station, which will alleviate flooding in western Hoboken.
A comprehensive “Resist, Delay, Store, Discharge” water management strategy that will protect Hoboken, Weehawken and northern Jersey City from flooding has won $230 million of federal funding as part of the Rebuild by Design resiliency competition. The award is expected to fund the implementation of the “Resist” element of the strategy.
Former DEP official claims Christie lawyer cut deal with Exxon
A former official of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has charged that Gov. Christopher Christie’s chief counsel intervened in talks to settle a 10-year-old lawsuit between the state and Exxon Mobil, according to published reports on Thursday.
The state attorney general launched a lawsuit against Exxon in 2004, claiming the company contaminated more than 1,500 acres of wetlands, marshes, and meadows at two refinery sites in Bayonne and Linden. Exxon disputed the state’s arguments saying they “ignored the evidence, science, and the law.”
In this week’s Op-Ed in the New York Times, Bradley M. Campbell cited “former colleagues of mine in state government” who told him Christopher S. Porrino “elbowed aside the attorney general and career employees who had developed and prosecuted the litigation, and cut the deal favorable to Exxon.” The company had already been found liable and the only question that remained was the amount of the judgment it would have to pay.
As a judge deliberated whether to assess the $8.9 billion in environmental damages the state sought, he said, the Christie administration stepped in, twice asked for and received delays in concluding the case, and agreed to take about $250 million to settle the case.
Campbell pointed out that while Christie was chairman of the Republican Governors Association in 2014, the group received $500,000 from Exxon and more from company employees, while the New Jersey trial was still underway.
The Times said Campbell, an attorney and former New Jersey DEP commissioner, was also administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s mid-Atlantic region from 1999 to 2001.
Campbell called the proposed settlement, which still must be approved by a judge, “an embarrassment to law enforcement and good government.”
A second Times story said Porrino, Christie’s general counsel since January 2014, had previously served two years as director of the Division of Law in the attorney general’s office, placing him in an oversight position over the Exxon litigation.
Neither Porrino or Exxon would give the Times a statement and so far Christie’s office has not commented. But environmentalists and other state officials have condemned the proposed settlement.
As reported by nj.com, State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union) said Thursday if Campbell’s information is accurate, “Acting Attorney General [John] Hoffman has abdicated his responsibility as the chief law enforcement officer of the state,” and called for Hoffman’s resignation.
State Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D – Gloucester) said on Tuesday the Senate would seek to intervene in the lawsuit and try to block the deal from being approved. On Thursday, Sweeney reacted to Campbell’s allegations, according to nj.com, by saying if Campbell’s information is true U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman should investigate the circumstances surrounding the state’s Exxon settlement.
Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D – Secaucus) and the chairman of the Assembly’s Judiciary Committee, John F. McKeon, plan to hold hearings on March 19.
Child advocate group holding informational session
Hudson County CASA (court appointed special advocate) is recruiting volunteers to advance the best interests of abused and neglected children.
An informational session, addressing the program and the role of its volunteers, will be held on Tuesday, March 10, from 6 to 7 p.m. in Room 901 of the Hudson County Administration Building, 595 Newark Ave., Jersey City.
For more information, call (201) 795-9855, e-mail mgarcia@hudsoncountycasa.org or visit www.hudsoncountycasa.org.
Fight kids’ cancer and celebrate life!
The St. Baldrick’s Foundation will host its fifth annual fundraising event – “Wigs on the Green: A Celebration of Life With Music” – to fight kids cancer on Saturday, March 14, from 2 to 6 p.m., at Willie McBride’s Irish Pub, 616 Grand St., Hoboken, N.J.
“It’s a cause that brings everybody together.” said event coordinator Jim O’Brien, of Hoboken. O’Brien will shave his head for the fifth time, and invites any other shavees to register and raise money by going bald with him. “Think of what the kids and their families deal with each day against this enemy.”
Hoboken barber, Nicole Appice, returns this year and will try to help the team break last year’s record take of $7,968. Appice has sheared dozens at the event over the last few years, each of whom raised money through sponsors.
Inspired by the story of a courageous 6-year-old boy who died of cancer four years ago, O’Brien first brought St. Baldrick’s to Willie McBride’s in 2011 as an offshoot of an annual St. Patrick’s Day party he and his buddies had hosted since college. A total of $21,903 has been raised by the local event over the years.
There will be music, food and drink for purchase, and crafts for the kids. Anyone who sings or plays an instrument is encouraged to join in the Fireside Jam as a way to show solidarity with the brave kids who are fighting this terrible disease. There is no fee to attend, but a hat will be passed. Supporters may also make donations on-line.
The national St. Baldrick’s Foundation, established in 1999, has raised more than $100 million to fight the scourge of kids’ cancer.
Interested shavees or donors are invited to go to: https://www.stbaldricks.org/events/WillieMcBride2015 or contact Jim O’Brien at jobinhk@aol.com
Garcia bill encourages tax break for businesses donating food to needy
Assemblyman Carmelo Garcia (D-Hudson) has introduced legislation to allow an income tax deduction for charitable contributions of food made from business inventory.
The bill states that over 1 million people living in New Jersey lack consistent access to enough food for active, healthy life for all household members, and have only limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate foods. The new tax deduction will encourage philanthropic gifts of food in deserving organizations and help reduce the number of those who needlessly go hungry in this state.
“We should encourage businesses and organizations to work together to address the hunger epidemic in the state,” said Garcia (D-Hudson). “This bill is the first step in encouraging these partnerships and creating resources that will help families in need.
Multiple statewide organizations support Garcia’s legislation, including the Community Food Bank of New Jersey, the Anti-Poverty Network, and the New Jersey Anti-Hunger Coalition, the NJ Food Council, and the NJ Retail Merchant Association.
In 2012, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Americans threw out roughly 35 million tons of food, which is nearly 20 percent more food than the Unites States tossed out on 2000, 50 percent more in 1990 and nearly three times than 1960.
“Today’s statistics on food waste does not make sense when many people in this country are worried about where their next meal is coming from,” said Garcia. “We can do more. We will do more. It begins with legislation like this one.”
The bill was referred to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
Meet renowned author and journalist Judith Valente
The Church of Our Lady of Grace & St. Joseph Lenten discussion book is “Atchinson Blue: A Search for Silence, a Spiritual Home, and a Living Faith,” by Bayonne native Judith Valente, an award-winning print and broadcast journalist, poet and essayist. Judith will speak in the Our Lady of Grace parish center at 411 Clinton St., on Wednesday, March 11 at 7:30 p.m.
Valente began her work in journalism at the age of 21 as a staff reporter for The Washington Post. She later joined the staff of The Wall Street Journal, reporting from that paper’s Chicago and London bureaus. She was twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, first in the public service category as part of a team of reporters at The Dallas Times Herald investigating airline safety in the 1980’s. In 1993, she was a finalist for the Pulitzer in the feature writing category for her front page article in The Wall Street Journal chronicling the story of a religiously conservative father caring for his son dying of AIDS.
For the past eight years, Judith has been a regular contributor to the national PBS-TV news program “Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.” She has won eight broadcast awards for her work on the show. Her work has also appeared on PBS-TV’s “The News Hour with Jim Lehrer.”
“Atchison Blue” was named Catholic Press Association’s “Best Spirituality Book in Paperback, and one of Religion Newswriters Association’s best.
Clarifications and corrections
An article last weekend quoted North Hudson Sewerage Authority Executive Director Richard Wolff as stating that the Maxwell Place Board of Trustees decided in December 2014 not to grant the Authority an easement for the section of Eleventh Street it plans to build a flood pump underneath. Wolff stood by his statement last week. In response, Tina Hahn, a member of the Maxwell Place Board of Trustees, said the board did not make a conscious decision or take a vote not to grant an easement at the December meeting. The board released the following statement: “The Maxwell Place HOA Board of Trustees authorized the board’s attorney to start negotiating easement terms on December 18, 2014. The board received communication from NHSA in January 2015 that was promptly responded to by their deadline. Despite the Maxwell Place HOA Board of Trustees’ desire to negotiate, NHSA moved forward with condemnation on January 28th.”
A Feb. 15 article about a legal settlement between Leah Healey and the city of Hoboken over a construction-related dispute misstated an aspect of the settlement. The settlement, which was approved by the City Council on Feb. 3, did not involve a monetary payout. In addition, Ronald Cucchiaro represented the city in the case, rather than representing Healey.
Former DEP official claims Christie lawyer cut deal with Exxon
A former official of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has charged that Gov. Christopher Christie’s chief counsel intervened in talks to settle a 10-year-old lawsuit between the state and Exxon Mobil, according to published reports on Thursday.
The state attorney general launched a lawsuit against Exxon in 2004, claiming the company contaminated more than 1,500 acres of wetlands, marshes, and meadows at two refinery sites in Bayonne and Linden. Exxon disputed the state’s arguments saying they “ignored the evidence, science, and the law.”
In this week’s Op-Ed in the New York Times, Bradley M. Campbell cited “former colleagues of mine in state government” who told him Christopher S. Porrino “elbowed aside the attorney general and career employees who had developed and prosecuted the litigation, and cut the deal favorable to Exxon.” The company had already been found liable and the only question that remained was the amount of the judgment it would have to pay.
As a judge deliberated whether to assess the $8.9 billion in environmental damages the state sought, he said, the Christie administration stepped in, twice asked for and received delays in concluding the case, and agreed to take about $250 million to settle the case.
Campbell pointed out that while Christie was chairman of the Republican Governors Association in 2014, the group received $500,000 from Exxon and more from company employees, while the New Jersey trial was still underway.
The Times said Campbell, an attorney and former New Jersey DEP commissioner, was also administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s mid-Atlantic region from 1999 to 2001.
Campbell called the proposed settlement, which still must be approved by a judge, “an embarrassment to law enforcement and good government.”
A second Times story said Porrino, Christie’s general counsel since January 2014, had previously served two years as director of the Division of Law in the attorney general’s office, placing him in an oversight position over the Exxon litigation.
Neither Porrino or Exxon would give the Times a statement and so far Christie’s office has not commented. But environmentalists and other state officials have condemned the proposed settlement.
As reported by nj.com, State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union) said Thursday if Campbell’s information is accurate, “Acting Attorney General [John] Hoffman has abdicated his responsibility as the chief law enforcement officer of the state,” and called for Hoffman’s resignation.
State Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D – Gloucester) said on Tuesday the Senate would seek to intervene in the lawsuit and try to block the deal from being approved. On Thursday, Sweeney reacted to Campbell’s allegations, according to nj.com, by saying if Campbell’s information is true U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman should investigate the circumstances surrounding the state’s Exxon settlement.
Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D – Secaucus) and the chairman of the Assembly’s Judiciary Committee, John F. McKeon, plan to hold hearings on March 19.