News Round-up & Open Thread for Monday, July 24

by: Jay Lassiter

Mon Jul 24, 2006 at 09:08:02 AM EDT

Corzine spoke with The Associated Press about the ongoing budget process and how it will guide the property tax debate ahead. Have a cup of coffee before you read it.

As the violence continues in the Middle East, foreign nationals from dozens of countries are fleeing Lebanon at a frenetic and incresingly unorganized pace. As of yesterday afternoon, 400 passengers had arrived at Fort Dix. Thousands more are scheduled to arrive today. No word yet how much the Americans fleeing the violence will have to pay for the evacuation services. According to some news reports, the US Embassy is FORCING people to sign an unspecified promisary note to GET OUT OF A WARZONE!!!!

The recent wave of crazy weather over the weekend brought flash-flooding to the state and tragedy to a pickup soccer game in Montvale. I dunno about you guys, but the weather seems to be a lot wackier than when I was a youngster. Maybe it's time we start to take to heart the human impact on our increasingly unpredictable weather patterns.

On that front: Burlington Times:

If you've driven to Atlantic City this year, you might have noticed the five 397-foot wind turbines at the sewage treatment plant just north of the Atlantic City Expressway. Those five turbines, which were installed at the end of 2005, are the power behind New Jersey's first wind farm and produce 20 million kilowatt hours of emission-free electricity per year, enough for more than 2,500 homes, according to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU).

It's a start.

For those of you who missed it, Zulima Farber was on NJN over the weekend trying to explain away her actions. Again. This time she's justifying her presence at the scene of a crime allegedly committed by "the man (she) shares her life with." Zulima and her boyfriend have a pattern of breaking the law while behind the wheel. Hardly inspires confidence in the top law enforcement officer in the state. (Note to Miss Zulima: your actions are embarrassing and unseemly. Since you refuse to resign, at least could you hire a driver??)

Not sure if this is news or not, but the Deleware River Port Authority is almost broke. Aparently a toll increase in NOT on the table at present. The toll has risen to $3 from 75 cents in 1986.

Finally, The state has released a guide that offers information about our beaches. The New Jersey Beach Guide includes info about beach fees, handicapped accessibility, parking, rest rooms and lifeguard coverage.

Not sure why this wasn't available in, say, April. Oh well, better late than never.

Am I missing anything? It's my first time doing the news roundup and if I neglected something that's on your mind then PLEASE weigh in under the comments section.

Jay Lassiter :: News Round-up & Open Thread for Monday, July 24

Tags: new jersey, property taxes, evacuees, Fort Dix, DRPA, wind farm, soccer, lightning, Jersey Shore, partridge, pear tree, News Roundup, Zulima Farber, (All Tags)

Print Friendly View

Send As Email

News Round-up & Open Thread for Monday, July 24 | 2 comments

Windmills (0.00 / 0)

Ironically enough, my family did notice the windmills as we were leaving AC on Friday. None of us had remembered them ever being there before, so that article explains it.

The windmills seamed very peaceful and calming.

by: PocketAces @ Mon Jul 24, 2006 at 13:58:22 PM UTC

Tilting Windmills and Thrilling Weather (0.00 / 0)

Jay, the news wrap looked just ducky to me. A well-done first time.

Individual windmills and windfarms on land (and not at sea) both sound fabulous to me ... BUT ... while we're all screaming about property taxes, keep in mind that these windmills, and residential solar panel installations, are being driven by substantial state subsidies. Still, if I lived in New Jersey (oh, yeah, I DO live in NJ!), I'd want to be the first state in the nation to boast of having 100% energy independence. Campaign platform plank, anyone?

If you want lower taxes, lure clean, productive ratables that don't produce school-aged children. Everything else is just so many rearranged deck chairs. Or cut discretionary budgets to the core. Like this energy program ... (No, I'm not in favor of it. But this is the sort of 'waste' that goes by the wayside when the antitaxers get rolling).

Why is "green" California 80% dependent on foreign hydrocarbon resources for its electricity, and 'dirty' New Jersey only 48%? (I dunno either).

We need to do a better job as Democrats on selling the services those nasty taxes are paying for -- watch what causes screaming when/if the discretionary budget goes the way of the passenger pigeon.

And, finally ... is the weather wackier now than in the past? Well, maybe ... but here's a great link to the Office of the New Jersey State Climatologist. LOTS of statistical analysis to play with ... and yes, there really was more snow when I was a wee tyke back in the late Eisenhower era, when clamosaurs and oysterettes ruled the world ...

http://climate.rutgers.edu/stateclim/

by: denniscmcgrath @ Mon Jul 24, 2006 at 14:19:18 PM UTC