North Bergen

For those who mock the great State of New Jersey, poking fun of the so-called "Culture of Corruption," consider this spin:

* A Governor of New Jersey has never been convicted of a crime, although Harold Hoffman, a Republican who served from 1935 to 1938, made a posthumous admission that he systematically stole tax dollars for years.

* It's been 26 years since a New Jersey Congressman was indicted. Frank Thompson, Jr., a 13-term Democrat from Trenton, was convicted in the Abscam scandal. Democrat Henry Helstoski was acquitted on his 1975 corruption charge and later went on to serve as the Superintendent of Schools in North Bergen.

* Only two United States Senators from New Jersey have actually served prison time: Harrison Williams, a four-term Democrat who was convicted in Abscam and resigned in 1981; and Jonathan Dayton, a Senator from 1799 to 1805, who was accused of conspiring with Aaron Burr to commit treason in 1807. Dayton, a former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, was released and never brought to trial, and seven years later made a political comeback when he won a State Assembly seat.

Add one more item to the list of Hamlet Goore's foibles -- he must have a bad sense of direction. When the Attorney General's live-in boyfriend found himself in need of a Motor Vehicles Commission office to straighten out a mess with his drivers license and car registration, he travelled miles out of his way to go to Elizabeth.

The MVC has offices in North Bergen, where Goore lives, and also in Irvington, where he works. If Goore, for some reason, didn't want to use the local office in North Bergen (located 1.37 miles from his home), the MVC has seven offices closer to his home than Elizabeth: Jersey City, Lodi, Englewood, Wallington, Newark, East Orange, Bayonne. If Goore was going during his lunch hour (he works for the Township of Irvington), and didn't (for some reason) want to use the local office located 1/2 mile from his office, he could have made it to East Orange, Newark or Sprinfield faster than Elizabeth.

SACCO MEASURE CALLS ON FEDS TO ALLOW REGULATION OF TRASH TRANSFER STATIONS

TRENTON - The State Senate voted today to approve SR-14, a resolution sponsored by Senator Nicholas Sacco which calls on Congress to pass the "Solid Waste Environmental Regulation Clarification Affecting Railroads Act of 2005" (S. 1607) to address the unregulated sorting and processing of waste materials at rail facilities.

"While regulation of the railroads is the purview of Congress, we can no longer sit idly by while the railroads set up environmentally dangerous trash transfer stations near our residential neighborhoods," said Senator Sacco, D-Bergen and Hudson. "There is no reason for transfer stations located on railroad property to be held to a different standard than those located elsewhere. The potential health and environmental risk is the same."

I posted earlier that there might be some signs of trouble for Corzine in Hoboken in Hudson County. I'll check back on that in a while, but I'm also hearing that turnout is solid in other parts of Hudson, perhaps indicating that the machine is in gear. In a North Bergen election district, 113 out of 490 voters had turned out by 11:30. In that district, 239 turned out all day in 2001. A strong Hudson showing by Corzine might boost U.S. Rep. Robert Menende, Hudson's de facto boss, as he angles to replace Corzine in the Senate.

"The machines are all out there trying to prove themselves for Corzine," explained one Democrat.

Menendez Announces EPA Investigation of Illegal Trash Dumps in New Jersey
Jersey City, NJ – U.S. Representative Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) today announced that inspection teams from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have recently visited garbage dumps being operated alongside the New York Susquehanna and Western (NYS&W) rail line in North Bergen. The EPA’s action came in response to a letter Menendez and U.S. Representative Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) sent to the EPA in May calling for investigations into the sites.

For those who mock the great State of New Jersey, poking fun of the so-called "Culture of Corruption," consider this spin:

* A Governor of New Jersey has never been convicted of a crime, although Harold Hoffman, a Republican who served from 1935 to 1938, made a posthumous admission that he systematically stole tax dollars for years.

* It's been 25 years since a New Jersey Congressman was indicted. Frank Thompson, Jr., a 13-term Democrat from Trenton, was convicted in the Abscam scandal. Democrat Henry Helstoski was acquitted on his 1975 corruption charge and later went on to serve as the Superintendent of Schools in North Bergen.

* Only two United States Senators from New Jersey have actually served prison time: Harrison Williams, a four-term Democrat who was convicted in Abscam and resigned in 1981; and Jonathan Dayton, a Senator from 1799 to 1805, who was accused of conspiring with Aaron Burr to commit treason in 1807. Dayton, a former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, was released and never brought to trial, and seven years later made a political comeback when he won a State Assembly seat.