One Of The Best Zoos In The Nation

If you live in the Garden State, you live near one of the top five zoos in the country and the 13th highest ranked zoo in the world. While many might expect that zoo to the be the massive Bronx Zoo in New York or the popular Philadelphia Zoo in Pennsylvania, the world class zoo is actually… Cape May Zoo.

The rankings were based on thousands of user reviews and this beloved South Jersey gem seems to be a visitor favorite. Guests think so highly of the zoo that its glowing reviews beat out much larger destinations, earning it a TripAdvisor Traveler's Choice Award.

 

The zoo is home to 550 animals, representing 250 species including the African Lion, Cheetah, Giraffe, Cotton Top Tamarin, Red Panda and Snow Leopard. The zoo is also home to 13 flamingos from Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch.

The zoo is free and open year-round. It offers a colorful carousel, rock climbing wall, mini-train, honey bee haven and beekeeper presentation, photo booth and birds of prey show.

Other amenities include a gift shop and full service dining at Safari Cafe. You'll find more than just hot dogs here with menu items including BBQ Pork Sandwiches, Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad, Funnel Cakes, Fresh Fruit and Ice Cream. A recent addition to the zoo is a treetop adventure course (Tree To Tree Adventure Park). The aerial course is completely safe and lets you explore the lush greenery from a unique perspective. Swing from tree to tree and challenge yourself with obstacles like ladder bridges and climbing nets.

Another thing that makes this zoo so great is its family-friendly programs and events. Past events have included Night Out With The Critters, an immersive charity event, and World Giraffe Day. Upcoming events include Global Tiger Day (July 29th), featuring tiger-themed programs, activities and talks, Yoga at the Zoo (July 31st) and the kid-approved PokemonGO day at the Zoo (August 5th) with prizes and more.

 

The zoo can be found at 707 Route 9 North, Cape May Court House, in the heart of Cape May County Park. Current hours are 10 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.. The zoo is handicap accessible and electric and manual wheel chairs are available for rental. One of my favorite zoo amenities is a private guided tour, just $15 per adult and $10 per child under 12. Guests have the option to add on an animal encounter.

Have you been to the Cape May County Zoo yet? Do you plan on visiting now? While you’re in the area, check out other Cape May attractions like those included here: This Charming New Jersey Destination Is Perfect For A Weekend Getaway. –Only In My State

Locally Speaking

NY Governor Cuomo Releases Blueprint to End AIDS by 2020

In an April 29 ceremony in front of Manhattan’s LGBT Community Center, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo formally accepted the blueprint to end the AIDS epidemic in the Empire State by 2020, according to a press release from the state.

The blueprint was created last fall by a task force of 63 HIV advocates and experts at Cuomo’s request. In January 2015, the task force submitted the blueprint, but the governor had not formally accepted it or released it until now.

Last June, Cuomo announced a three-point plan to reduce the number of new annual HIV infections to 750 from an estimated 3,000. The three points are (1) identifying more people who are HIV positive and linking them to care, (2) retaining people in care and helping them maintain undetectable viral levels, and (3) providing more access to pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP and PEP).

The state Department of Health appointed the task force with the job of suggesting how best to achieve those goals. The resulting 30 recommendations comprise the blueprint to ending the AIDS epidemic. The recommendations address acute HIV infections, homelessness, hepatitis C and other related topics.

According to the state’s press release, “In the 2015–16 budget, Governor Cuomo included $10 million to support End of the Epidemic in New York State. The budget also removed the requirement for individuals in correctional facilities to give written consent for HIV testing, encouraged high-risk populations to use condoms by prohibiting prosecutors from using them as evidence in prostitution cases, and made it legal to possess syringes obtained through a syringe access program.”

A press release by Treatment Action Group (TAG) stated that “a public release of this blueprint will galvanize the fiscal and legislative support needed to end the epidemic.”

A previous report by TAG and Housing Works predicted that the plan will save the state $4.5 billion in Medicaid by 2020. –Source: POZ


Christie Was Aware Of Bridge Scandal, Poll Says
A majority of New Jersey voters don't believe Gov. Chris Christie personally ordered the George Washington Bridge lane closures that rocked his administration. But nearly just as many believe he was aware of them, according to a new poll.

Fifty-seven percent of New Jersey voters say Christie did not personally order the traffic jams that snarled traffic in the town of Fort Lee for nearly a week, compared to 32 percent who think he did, according to a Quinnipiac University Poll released Monday. But a majority — 53 percent to 38 percent — say he was aware of Bridgegate as opposed to being left in the dark.

"Did Gov. Christopher Christie cause Bridgegate? Most voters say no. Did he know about it? Most think he did," said Maurice Carroll, assistant director of Quinnipiac University Poll.

Christie has insisted he was "blindsided" by the scandal that reached top staffers in his administration.

A federal probe into the bridge access lane closures is still pending.

If it's proven Christie ordered the lane closures or knew what his aides were doing at the time, 34 percent of voters want Christie removed from office and 29 percent say he should be removed and prosecuted, according to the poll. Twenty-nine percent say an apology is enough.

The poll also found Christie's job approval hit another low with 56 percent of New Jersey voters disapproving of his work and only 38 percent who said they approve.

A majority of blue sate New Jersey voters also said Christie would not make a good president.

The poll was conducted from April 9-14 and surveyed 1,428 New Jersey voters. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points. The survey included 444 Republicans with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.7 percentage points and 539 Democratic voters with a margin of error of 4.2 percentage points. –Source: Nj

Locally Speaking

N.J. Voters Want Menendez To Resign

A majority of New Jersey voters think U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez should resign after being indicted on 14 federal corruption charges, according to a poll released Thursday morning.

And that isn't the only bad news for Menendez (D-N.J.) in the Quinnipiac University poll of 1,428 state voters. The survey also finds that his approval rating is plummeting and that even voters who believe he did not do anything illegal still think he acted unethically.

"The accusation is enough, voters say," said Maurice Carroll, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. "Robert Menendez should quit."

Fifty-two percent of voters — including 61 percent of Republicans, 51 percent of independents and 46 percent of Democrats — say Menendez should go.

Fifty-four percent say he's not "honest and trustworthy," versus 23 percent who think he is.

Menendez is accused of accepting free flights, lavish vacations and hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen. In exchange, it's alleged that Menendez intervened with Department of Health officials so Melgen wouldn't have to pay millions he owed in Medicare overbillings, pushed for the enforcement of a Dominican Republic port security contract for a company that Melgen owned, and arranged visas for three of the married doctor's foreign girlfriends.

A plurality of voters — 45 percent — think Menendez committed a crime. Another 38 percent say Menendez acted unethically but did not violate the law.

Only 8 percent of voters think Menendez did not do anything "seriously wrong."

"More than 80 percent of New Jerseyans think what the senator did was illegal or at least unethical, but hardly anyone believes he's blameless," Carroll said.

And with that, Menendez's job approval rating — which was 46 percent approve to 33 percent disapprove in January — has droped. Now, 35 percent approve and 46 percent disapprove.

By contrast, New Jersey's other U.S. Senator, Cory Booker (D-N.J.), fares better, with 52 percent of voters approving of his job performance and 20 percent disapproving.

While Menendez has called the charges politically motivated &mdahs; and even several Republicans have shown support for him — a plurality of voters don't buy it. Forty-six percent say the case against the senator is based on facts, while 39 percent say it's political.

The Quinnipiac poll results come a week after a Rutgers-Eagleton poll found 58 percent of New Jersey residents said Menendez should stay in office unless he's proven guilty. That poll relied on a smaller sample size and was being conducted on the day Menendez was indicted.

Quinnipiac's poll was conducted from April 9-14 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.

Michael Soliman, a former Menendez state director who is spearheading a PR campaign on his behalf, said Menendez "has been the victim of a coordinated, anonymous smear campaign for nearly three years."

"Unfortunately, this poll did not provide responders with the benefit of Senator Menendez's side of the story — but only a one-sided reiteration of allegations," he said. "We believe that once New Jerseyans have the opportunity to hear Bob's side, and have the benefit of all the facts we have yet to present, they will form a very different conclusion." -Source: Nj


Christie To Propose Big Changes To Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will call for major reform to Social Security Tuesday, including eliminating the benefit for seniors making $200,000 or more, reducing the benefit for seniors making more than $80,000 and raising the retirement age to 69.

Christie is expected to talk about the need to overhaul Medicaid, Medicare and disability insurance, in addition to Social Security in a speech in New Hampshire ahead of a likely 2016 run, reported The Wall Street Journal. He’ll argue he’s the right person to take on the sure political challenge.

“Washington is afraid to have an honest conversation about Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid with the people of our country,” Christie will say, according to prepared remarks obtained by the WSJ. “I am not.”

In Medicare, Christie will call for increasing the age when seniors qualify to 67 by 2040, and require seniors with higher incomes to pay more into the system. He’ll also call for Medicaid funding to be turned over to the states.

“This fairness must cover our hard-working taxpayers footing the bills today and must include reforming these programs to ensure their existence today and for future generations,” Christie will say.

The speech is part of three days of political events in the important primary state of New Hampshire, before he plans to return to New Jersey for a town hall meeting Thursday.

Christie’s approval ratings in New Jersey have suffered dramatically, in part because of concerns he is spending too much time out of the state preparing for a likely presidential run. –Source: Daily Caller

Court Wisely Rejects Challenge To N.J. Ban On Gay Conversion Therapy

A federal appeals court in Philadelphia has dismissed a challenge to New Jersey's ban on gay conversion therapy for minors. It was a wise and compassionate move, recognizing that homosexuality is neither an illness nor an aberration.

Flying in the face of scientific and medical wisdom, conversion therapy seeks to convert gay and lesbian young people to heterosexuality. It's a practice nearly every well-respected medical health association in the country has dismissed as junk science at best - and as a form of child abuse at worst.

Gov. Chris Christie signed the measure in 2013, outlawing the therapy in the Garden State. California enacted a similar law the year before, and the District of Columbia also has the ban in place.

New Jersey's law prevents any licensed therapist, psychologist, counselor or social worker from using sexual-orientation change efforts with children under 18.

During the signing ceremony, the governor said the potential health risks of the therapy outweighed concerns over the government's setting limits on parental choice.

Year after year, in paper after paper, the American Association of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association and the National Association of Social Workers have condemned this justifiably reviled "reparative therapy," terming the practice emotionally demoralizing and damaging.

The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that U.S. District Court Judge Freda Wolfson, who presides in Trenton, was correct to reject the claims of a couple who complained that their constitutional rights were being violated because the law bars them from seeking treatment for their 15-year-old son.

It was the second time the appeals court has upheld New Jersey's law.

The most recent decision came less than a week after President Obama announced support for a nationwide ban on conversion therapy. More than 120,000 people signed a petition asking the White House to take action following the highly publicized death of Leelah Alcorn in December.

The transgender teen from Ohio took her own life by walking into heavy traffic, reportedly after her parents forced her to undergo Christian-based conversation therapy. Her suicide note, posted on social media, touched millions of hearts, driving home the very real peril of this discredited approach.

We hope that with this week's decision we've seen the last of attempts to overturn the ban, but there are indications that the plaintiffs in the case intend to bring their fight to the U.S. Supreme Court.

That would be a shame. Ending the ban would only compound the tragedy of Leelah Alcorn, making life a waking nightmare for countless teens already struggling to find their place in this world. –Source: Nj

Locally Speaking

The Salacious Details Of Robert Menendez’s Indictment

New Jersey U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez accepted nearly $1 million in lavish gifts and campaign contributions from Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen in exchange for the Democrat’s political help, including intervention on behalf of Melgen’s businesses and for three of his visa-seeking foreign girlfriends.

In a 68-page indictment handed down on Wednesday, the Department of Justice accused Menendez and Melgen, both 61, of engaging in corruption and bribery between 2006 and 2013.

What Menendez did for Melgen

According to the indictment, Menendez helped three of Melgen’s girlfriends — a Brazilian, a Dominican and a Ukrainian – obtain U.S. visas in 2007 and 2008.

Melgen, who has a wife named Flor, met his Brazilian girlfriend — a model, actress and lawyer — in 2007. Melgen suggested that his girlfriend move to the U.S. to attend school in South Florida, and she applied for a student visa. On July 24, 2008, a day before her visa application appointment in Brazil, Menendez’s senior policy adviser emailed the deputy assistant secretary of state in Brazil in order to grease the wheels.

The woman was granted the pass and eventually enrolled at the University of Miami to pursue a law degree.

According to the indictment, Melgen financed her tuition through his Sal Melgen Foundation, a non-profit foundation that is aimed at “helping with the educational needs of disadvantaged persons.”

Menendez also helped Melgen’s Dominican girlfriend and her sister obtain visas in 2008. Melgen met the woman, also a model, in 2005. After the sisters’ visas were initially denied on Nov. 6, 2008, Menendez and his staff intervened with the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic. That seemed to help the sisters’ case, as they were granted the visas following a re-interview on Dec. 1, 2008.

Menendez’s help was so instrumental in the ploy that one of his staffers emailed another, writing, “In my view, this is ONLY DUE to the fact that [Robert Menendez] intervened. I’ve told RM.”

Menendez also intervened to ensure that Melgen’s Ukrainian girlfriend was granted a visa in early 2007. The woman, also a model, was living in Spain at the time. After Menendez sent a letter endorsing her, she was granted the visa on Feb. 22, 2007.

According to the indictment, this intervention was evidence that Menendez sought to “influence the immigration visa proceedings of Melgen’s foreign girlfriends.”

Menendez also pressured the State Department to approve a deal that would benefit Melgen’s interests in a port security deal in the Dominican Republic. Melgen’s company, ICSSI, had a 20-year contract with the Dominican government to x-ray shipping containers going in and out of the nation’s ports. ICSSI was set to receive $90 for each container it scanned.

According to the indictment, Menendez and his staff intervened with the assistant secretary of state for Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs to gain U.S. approval of the deal.

And on Jan. 11, 2013, Menendez directed a staffer to contact U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to put a hold on its plan to donate monitoring equipment to the Dominican Republic. Such a donation would “threaten” Melgen’s interests, according to the indictment.

But Menendez, through his staff, told CBP that he had concerns that agents of influence may have sought to use the donated equipment because it “will be less effective than the outside contractor’s.” That contractor was, of course, Melgen’s company.

Menendez also stepped in to help Melgen after his Palm Beach medical practice became embroiled in a dispute with the Zone Program Integrity Contractor for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS). The agency slapped Melgen with a $8.9 million judgement stemming from his billing for the drug Lucentis.

According to the indictment, Melgen “multi-dosed” the drug. While each vile of the drug contains one dose, Melgen was getting up to three doses per vial and overbilling Medicare for the difference.

When Melgen informed Menendez that he was set to be audited on the matter, the senator emailed staff on June 12, 2009, saying that “we need to help him.”

Menendez sought out meetings with officials at CMS and with Kathleen Sebelius, then the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Ironically, when Sebelius’s staff was finally able to make Sebelius available for a conference call on Aug. 6, 2010, on the matter, Menendez’s staff had to postpone the chat because he was flying on Melgen’s private jet headed to his home in the Dominican Republic.

Menendez eventually met with both Sebelius and CMS’s then-acting director, Marilyn Tavenner. He met with Tavenner first, on June 7, 2012. He met with Sebelius on Aug. 2. Harry Reid, then the Senate majority leader, sat in on that meeting. Neither meeting helped Melgen’s plea for relief.

What Melgen did for Menendez

In exchange for the political help, Melgen showered Menendez with vacations and plane rides that the Democrat used for himself and his girlfriends. Melgen also funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to Menendez and his Democratic allies.

In 2012, Melgen donated $700,000 to the Majority PAC, a political action committee controlled by associates of Reid. Nearly all of that amount, $600,000, was earmarked for Menendez. Those donations were made at around the time that Reid brokered the meeting with Sebelius on Melgen’s Medicare overbilling case.

According to the indictment, Menendez began flying on Melgen’s private plane to the doctor’s Dominican residence in 2006. Menendez would travel by himself, with Melgen, or with a girlfriend, according to the indictment. On one occasion, Melgen flew Menendez’s girlfriend at the time to meet him at the resort, called Casa de Campo.

The indictment lists flights embarking to and from Casa de Campo on Aug. 18, 2006, April 4, 2007, Aug. 30, 2008, May 28, 2010 and Aug. 6, 2010.

On Oct. 8, 2010, Melgen paid $890 to fly Menendez first-class from Newark to West Palm Beach. Three days later, Melgen chartered a private flight for Menendez on which he was the only passenger.

Melgen also forked over $4,934 to pay for Menendez’s three-night stay at the Park Hyatt Paris-Vindome. There, Menendez visited a woman with whom he had a personal relationship. She was in town with her sister, who traveled to Paris on business.

In 2011 and 2012, Melgen gave $40,000 to The Fund to Uphold the Constitution, a slush fund to help Menendez with a recall effort.

Melgen’s donations to Menendez and other Democrats came from himself, family members and through his companies.

Wednesday’s indictment lists 14 counts against Menendez, including one for conspiracy, one for violating the travel act, eight for bribery, three counts of honest services fraud, and one for making false statements.

He has not issued a statement since the indictment was handed down. But when it was reported last month that the indictment was imminent, Menendez denied all wrongdoing and said he will not resign his seat.

“Government corruption – at any level of elected office – corrodes the public trust and weakens our democratic system,” said Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell in a statement after the indictment was released.

“It is the fundamental responsibility of the Department of Justice to hold public officials accountable by conducting thorough investigations and seeking an indictment when the facts and the law support it.”

Menendez announced Wednesday night that he would temporarily step down as the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He also vowed, “this is not how my career is going to end.”

“I am not going anywhere. I’m angry and ready to fight because today contradicts my public service and my entire life,” Menendez said at a press conference.

Fellow New Jersey Democrat Sen. Cory Booker also issued a statement of support.

“Senator Menendez has never wavered in his commitment to the people of New Jersey. He’s been an invaluable resource and a mentor to me since I arrived in the Senate.”

“Our nation and state face critical issues and I will continue to partner with Senator Menendez to take on the challenges before us.” -Source: The Daily Caller


N.J. Doctors Least Willing To Accept Medicaid Patients Under Obamacare

The Affordable Care Act has provided a path for 420,500 low-income New Jersey residents to gain insurance through the Medicaid program, but a new study says the state ranks last in the nation in doctors willing to treat them.

Just 38.7 percent of New Jersey physicians said they accepted new Medicaid patients in 2013 — far below the national average of nearly 69 percent, according to the most recent data available from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New Jersey is the only state where fewer than half of the doctors accepted new Medicaid patients. California, at 54.2 percent is second-lowest in the nation.

New Jersey also ranked at the bottom in a 2011-12 survey of 8,158 physicians, when 46 percent of primary care doctors said they had planned to take on new Medicaid patients.

It's unclear how the expanded Medicaid program and the Affordable Care Act in general has affected physician practices in New Jersey. But a study released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation last week said that while patient volume is increasing, it's not off the charts.

"Contrary to what many anticipated, physician waiting rooms aren't being flooded by sicker-than-average newly insured patients," said Kathy Hempstead, who directs coverage issues at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "So far, the increase in demand is moderate, and new patients do not appear to differ much from established patients in terms of their chronic conditions."

New Jersey's Medicaid physician reimbursement rates — among the lowest in the country despite the state's high cost of living — have long suppressed doctor participation in the program known as NJ FamilyCare.

But the decline from 46 percent to 38 percent participation rate in New Jersey may surprise lawmakers and policy makers, who anticipated President Obama's health care law would entice more doctor interest. Obamacare raised Medicaid reimbursement rates in 2013 and 2014 to match Medicare rates.

Using this standard, participating New Jersey doctors would have received 109 percent increase in pay, according to Kaiser Health News, an independent, nonpartisan news service. Nationally, doctors would have received 73 percent more.

Those raises were delayed in 2013, however, because of federal budget cuts. The survey was conducted from February 2013 through June 2013, and the CDC report said it will need to look at 2014 data "to determine if physician acceptance of new Medicaid patients increased" because of the pay increases.

A report by NJ Advance Media in February detailed the problems people on Medicaid have finding a doctor who will see them. Making the situation even more challenging to patients, an investigation of the insurance company lists of participating providers revealed those lists to be inaccurate or out-of-date.

Acknowledging a physician shortage at a time of unprecedented growth in NJ FamilyCare, Gov. Chris Christie's proposed state budget dedicates $45 million to bump-up physician reimbursements, and $27.3 million to help hospitals offset the cost of training new doctors. He found the money by taking it from the charity care fund that partially reimburses hospitals for treating uninsured patients.

New Jersey is one of 27 states and the District of Columbia that chose to accept billions of dollars in federal aid to expand Medicaid eligibility to include adults without children.

Nebraska physicians were the most likely in the nation to accommodate the newly enrolled, with 96.5 percent participating. Among New Jersey's neighbors, 57 percent of doctors participated in New York, 81 percent in Pennsylvania, and 80 percent in Delaware.

Physicians in New Jersey were more accommodating to patients with private insurance and Medicare. In 2013, 87.5 percent of doctors accepted patients with private insurance -- higher than the national average of 84.7 percent -- 82.6 percent welcome Medicare patients, according to the 2013 National Electronic Health Records Survey.

Nationally, the survey found:

• 84.7 percent of physicians in the nation accepted new patients with private insurance;
• 83.7 percent of physicians accepted new Medicare patients;
• Doctors in metropolitan or city areas were less likely (67.2 percent) to accept Medicaid patients than those who practiced outside a metropolitan area (85.7 percent). The federally defined metropolitan areas in New Jersey are New York-Newark-Jersey City, and Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington. –Source: Nj

Locally Speaking

Feds To File Corruption Charges Against Democratic US Sen. Bob Menendez

The U.S. Senate may grow more Republican after federal investigators file corruption charges against U.S. Democratic Senator Bob Menendez.

Federal investigators at the Dept. of Justice are expected to file corruption charges against U.S. Senator Bob Menendez. A New Jersey Democrat, Menendez won re-election in 2012. Should he step down or otherwise leave office, Republican Gov. Chris Christie, a likely GOP presidential candidate, would appoint someone to serve out the remainder of Menendez's term. That person could choose to run for election in 2018.

The charges are related to "his relationship with a Florida eye doctor who is a longtime friend and political benefactor," the New York Times reports. "Federal prosecutors said Mr. Menendez did political favors for the doctor, Salomon Melgen."

Menendez is widely known for being the head of the DSCC who was slow to react to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley's disastrous Senatorial campaign, which allowed Republican Scott Brown to take Ted Kennedy's Massachusetts seat.

He was also the target of a fake prostitution scandal reported on initially by the radical right news outlet The Daily Caller. Those charges were found to be unsubstantiated and the women who claimed to be involved later recanted, stated they had been paid to make the accusations. –Source: The New Civil Rights Movement

UPDATE:

Muslim Holidays Are Now NYC Public School Holidays

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced this morning that the Muslim holidays of Eid al-Adha and al-Fitr have been added to the NYC public school schedule, calling it “a change that respects the diversity of our city.”

During the Bloomberg administration, the City Council approved adding the holidays, but Mayor Bloomberg was against the measure, saying in 2008, “The truth of the matter is we need more children in school. More, not less,” and “When you have a city as diverse as we do, with virtually every religion known to man practiced, if we closed school for every single day there wouldn’t be any school.”

Before he took office, de Blasio had voiced his support of adding Muslim holidays to the school calendar (FWIW, Republican mayoral candidate Joe Lhota agreed). Earlier this year, Governor Cuomo signed a new law allowing local school boards make Lunar New Year an official holiday. This has not yet happened in NYC, but today City Council Member Margaret Chin said, “I will continue to discuss this issue with Mayor de Blasio and his staff, and I will do everything in my power to advocate for the designation of Lunar New Year as an official public school holiday for 2016 and beyond.” -Source: Vision To America


SEPTA Ordered To Accept Anti-Islamic Ads Featuring Hitler

Locally Speaking

More Than 40 Percent Of Republicans Won't Back Christie For President

More than four in 10 Republicans say they won't consider backing Gov. Chris Christie for their party's presidential nomination, the worst ranking among potential GOP candidates, according to a new poll.

Just 28 percent of those surveyed by CBS News said they would consider supporting the New Jersey governor, compared with the 43 percent who said they would not.

The survey said 49 percent of Republicans would consider supporting former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for the nomination, with 26 percent saying they wouldn't; 46 percent would consider backing former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee with 24 percent saying no; and 37 percent would consider voting for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, with 19 percent indicating they would not.

Other than Christie, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul was the only Republican in negative territory, with 31 percent saying they would not consider supporting him to be the GOP standardbearer and 30 percent said they would consider voting for him.

But while 38 percent said they didn't know enough about Paul to make up their minds, only 29 percent said the same about Christie. That was second to Bush, where just 25 percent of Republicans said they didn't know enough about him to have an opinion.

Still, it's early. The poll said that just 15 percent of all respondents were paying a lot of attention to the 2016 presidential race, compared with 54 percent who were giving the election little or no attention.

Christie fared better than many of his top rivals among self-described independents, where 36 percent said they wouldn't consider supporting him for the Republican presidential nomination, compared with 25 percent who said they would, and 38 percent who said they didn't know enough about him.

For Bush, 41 percent said they wouldn't consider supporting him, while 24 percent said they would; and for Huckabee, 33 percent said no, and 23 percent said yes.

Paul, however, did better among independents in the survey, with 29 percent saying they wouldn't support him, and 28 percent saying they would.

On the Democratic side, 81 percent said they would consider voting for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the party's nomination, while 12 percent said they wouldn't and just 7 percent saying they didn't know enough about her to venture an opinion.

The survey of 1,006 voters, including 255 Republicans and 305 Democrats, was conducted Feb. 13-17. The margin of error was 6 percentage points. –Source: NJ

Locally Speaking

Atlantic City Casinos Should Look To New York For Inspiration: Letter

This past summer has been tough for the State of New Jersey. We watched parts of Atlantic City dry up, with four casinos closing so far this year. However, just north of us a very different story is unfolding with the expansion of gambling in New York.

The success of Resorts World Casino New York City in Queens cannot be missed. They have been drawing in new customers and providing quality service. And now, their parent company, Genting Americas, wants to bring another casino and resort to our region.

Sterling Forest Resort, the proposed casino, is one hour away from Central New Jersey, and only 20 minutes from much of the Northern part of our state. With all of the turmoil occurring in Atlantic City, the potential opening of a new casino that is closer to the majority of New Jersey residents shouldn’t be seen as cataclysmic, but welcome news, and a sign of progress. Additional competition should spur Atlantic City’s competitive side and inspire the owners of the hotels and casinos down there to come back stronger than ever.

Steve Fontana, Hamburg –NJ

Locally Speaking

New Manhattan Tower Is Now The Tallest, If Not The Fairest, Of Them All

When viewers tune in to “The Tonight Show” these days, besides Jimmy Fallon’s huge smile and the Afro of his bandleader, Questlove, they are met by a remarkably realistic Manhattan skyline.

There is the cityscape on a curtain, of course — a staple of late-night television since Johnny Carson was on the air — but also 37 wooden models behind Mr. Fallon’s desk. And not just of familiar landmarks like the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty, but less obvious ones, too, including the Hearst Tower, the Pier 17 mall and the Maritime Hotel.

Yet one building is missing that is impossible to miss, and not only from Mr. Fallon’s offices at Rockefeller Center but just about everywhere in New York City: 432 Park Avenue.

On Friday, the 104-unit condominium tower, between 56th and 57th Streets, reached its peak of 1,396 feet. At 96 stories, it is arguably the tallest building in the city. One World Trade Center has its spire, but the skyscraper itself is 28 feet shorter than 432 Park. As for the Empire State Building, this new 93-foot-by-93-foot concrete megalith bests it by nearly 150 feet. From the living room of 432 Park’s penthouses, it is possible to look down on the observation deck there, flash bulbs glittering like an oversize chandelier.

But even more than the views from the apartments, it may be the views of them that give 432 Park its allure. From Central Park, Park Avenue or Park Slope, there it is. On the George Washington Bridge or Long Island Expressway, there it is. In the bleachers at MetLife Stadium or Citi Field, there it is. Everyone from cinematographers and muralists to tourists and snow globe makers must now contend with the tower.

“It’s almost like the Mona Lisa,” Harry B. Macklowe, the developer building the $1.3 billion tower, said at a topping-out ceremony on Friday for 1,500 construction workers. “Except instead of it looking at you, you’re looking at it wherever you are. You can’t escape it.”

Not that everyone agrees the building, developed with the CIM Group, based in Los Angeles, is a work of art.

“God, does it stand out,” said Marlene Rosenthal, who regularly glimpses it while riding Metro-North. “It’s a status symbol, and that’s the name of the game in this city.”

There can be no doubt the skyline has changed, yet New Yorkers are less sure whether it has changed for better or worse. Some are awed by the slender, omnipresent obelisk, its perfect symmetries, an undeniable feat of engineering; others are repulsed by its dimensions, both physical and financial, where units cost as much as $95 million, an undeniable feat of excess.

“For people who watch the skyline and love it, I think there’s a real struggle,” said Vin Cipolla, president of the Municipal Art Society. “There’s a handsomeness about the building you can’t deny, but it’s so out of context and so imposing, it’s hard to know what to make of it.”

His group has urged City Hall to monitor these supertowers more closely. A dozen others are already in the works throughout Manhattan.

The monuments in New York, unlike those in London, Paris and Washington, have always been its tall buildings. This one is no different.

For the first three centuries, it was a pair of churches, Collegiate and Trinity. Then came the World Building, Manhattan Life Insurance, Park Row and Woolworth, emblems of the city’s business and media might. The Empire State Building, constructed in 410 days, showed hardworking beauty and recessionary resolve. The World Trade Center, both original and resurrected, built as a symbol of defiance that the city would be great again.

And now, with more than half of the 104 condos sold, including the $95 million penthouse and the cheapest units starting at $7 million, 432 Park proves that that skyline is for sale.

Whoever said money can’t buy happiness has never been inside an apartment 1,300 feet above a bustling metropolis.

Yet even if those apartments are out of reach, it is only a matter of time before anyone can buy one — though on a postcard or a plate at Fishs Eddy. Movie and advertising backdrops also seem inevitable. Snow globes and other knickknacks might be slower to incorporate 432 Park.

“Unless it becomes a part of the lexicon or the public consciousness of New York, I don’t see it becoming a big souvenir,” said Nathan Harkrader, a co-founder of NYCwebstore.com, an online souvenir shop. “This has to be something people in Atlanta, Chicago or Las Vegas are going to recognize and know.”

And so the producers of “The Tonight Show” have yet to decide whether to include 432 Park in their skyline. The Mets have ruled out adopting it in their logo, a spokesman said, and the same goes for the badge of the Fire Department.

Tony Malkin, whose family has controlled the Empire State Building since 1961, said he would not add 432 Park to the interactive displays on its observation decks, which help visitors identify the skyline. “It’s medieval,” Mr. Malkin said. “That’s where towers come from, the Middle Ages. The wealthy built them for protection and isolation from the city below.”

Fortresses can still be seductive, though. For Demid Lebedev, a 17-year-old daredevil who posts his exploits on Instagram, 432 Park was his Everest. One day, after watching the tower grow, he and a friend decided that “we need to get up there,” he wrote in an email.

“When we made our way up to the crane I believe we were around the 90th floor and it was incredible! We were literally above the clouds. I can’t really compare it to any other building.”

His photos received thousands of views online, and he received a visit from police detectives a few days later, Mr. Lebedev said. For the night he spent up on the tower, he was arrested and spent the night in jail.

Such reactions are what inspired Mr. Macklowe to build 432 Park, he said, which is unlikely to be overshadowed anytime soon, thanks to its location at the edge of Midtown.

What surprised him was any criticism of his building as ugly or uninspired. “If somebody thinks a 1,400-foot building is boring, well, I just don’t get that,” he said. To those who find it crass, he pointed to the hundreds of workers building and soon operating the tower: “A lot of guys have come up to me today and said: ‘Thank you. Because of this building, I can afford my own house.’ ”

It just won’t be one down the street.

If Manhattan has truly become a playground for the rich, here is its new beacon. –NY Times


Rats And Their Alarming Bugs

If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s that our well-being is intimately linked to the health of animals.

The current Ebola epidemic probably got its start when someone came into contact with an infected animal, perhaps a monkey or a fruit bat. The virus causing Middle East respiratory syndrome appears to spread from camels to humans.

Yet animal pathogens remain a scientific terra incognita. Researchers have begun cornering animals in far-flung parts of the world to learn more about what infects them.

Recently, a team of pathogen hunters at Columbia University went on an expedition closer to home. They conducted a survey of the viruses and bacteria in Manhattan’s rats, the first attempt to use DNA to catalog pathogens in any animal species in New York City.

“Everybody’s looking all over the world, in all sorts of exotic places, including us,” said Ian Lipkin, a professor of neurology and pathology at Columbia. “But nobody’s looking right under our noses.”

On Tuesday, Dr. Lipkin and his colleagues published their initial results in the journal mBio. Although the scientists examined just 133 rats, they found plenty of pathogens. Some caused food-borne illnesses. Others, like Seoul hantavirus, had never before been found in New York. Others were altogether new to science.

The researchers could not say how ill New Yorkers were getting from these rat-borne agents, but already the results were raising alarms among experts.

Peter Daszak, the president of EcoHealth Alliance, a scientific organization that researches the links between human health and wildlife, called the study “shocking and surprising,” particularly given the close quarters shared by rats and New Yorkers.

“This is a recipe for a public health nightmare,” he said.

It has been hard for scientists to measure the medical threat that rats pose. Identifying pathogens has traditionally been a slow, painstaking business, requiring researchers to rear microbes in labs.

Since the 1990s, Dr. Lipkin has helped speed the search by developing methods for fishing out pathogen genes from infected hosts. This research took him around the world, but Dr. Lipkin had long wondered what he might find if he studied New York’s rats.

In 2012, Cadhla Firth, then a postdoctoral research scientist in Dr. Lipkin’s lab, and her colleagues picked four buildings and a park in Manhattan where they set traps. Luring the rats into them proved harder than Dr. Firth expected.

“New York rats are a lot wilier than rats in other cities,” she said. “We had to bait traps and just leave them open for a week.”

Once the scientists caught the rats, they took samples of blood, urine, feces and tissues from a number of organs. After extracting DNA from the samples, they sifted through the gene fragments.

First, the scientists looked for disease agents previously found in rats. They discovered bacteria that caused food poisoning, such as Salmonella and a strain of E. coli known to cause terrible diarrhea. They also found pathogens that caused fevers, such as Seoul hantavirus and Leptospira.

They did not, however, find some of the nastiest germs infecting rats in other parts of the world, such as Yersinia pestis, which causes bubonic plague.

Then the scientists searched the rats for new species of viruses. So far, they have identified 18 unknown species related to viruses already shown to cause diseases in humans. Two of the new species, were similar to the virus that causes hepatitis C.

David Patrick, the director of the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia, called the identification of new viruses “groundbreaking.”

“These viruses may or may not have any links to human illness, but it is good to be able to describe them in detail,” he said.

The viruses resembling hepatitis C could prove to be the most important discovery in the survey, not because rats might give us hepatitis C. (They will not.) But scientists may be able to glean clues from the rat viruses to fight the disease, which affects about 150 million people worldwide.

Hepatitis remains a mysterious disease, because lab animals do not suffer the same symptoms as humans when they are infected with the human virus. Infecting lab rats with the new rat viruses could change all that.

“It’s still a few steps to go before you can call it an animal model, but I think overall it’s a really exciting finding,” said Alexander Ploss, a molecular virologist at Princeton University.

Some experts cautioned that we have yet to understand how much harm the rat pathogens are doing to residents. “I don’t see it as a call to wage war on rats just yet,” said Angela Luis, a biologist at the University of Montana.

Dr. Lipkin and his colleagues are now collaborating with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to look for signs of infection from some of the rat pathogens in the blood samples of New Yorkers.

Jay Varma, the deputy commissioner for disease control at the New York City Department of Health, said the study would not lead to any immediate changes in how the city deals with rats, but the data would help health officials better understand how diseases spread.

“We live in a world where humans are in the minority,” he said. "We as a society probably haven’t done enough to understand the true ecology of bacteria and viruses.”

The study should alert New York to monitor rats and control them better, Dr. Lipkin said.

“I think people are going to have to start paying attention to this,” he said. “But that’s Bill de Blasio’s problem. I’m just doing the science.” -NY Times

Locally Speaking

It's The Great Pumpkin, New Jersey: 863-Pounder On display In Long Valley

It started as a Christmas present from Michael Starr's wife, a bag of special seeds and a how-to manual.

And now it's grown into the second-biggest pumpkin on record in New Jersey history, according to Starr, the pumpkin's owner

The jumbo-size Jack-o'-lantern, which was grown by the Long Valley attorney on Schooley's Mountain, is the main attraction at Ort Farms this fall. Grown in Starr's front yard, the giant white squash weighs in at a mind-boggling 863 pounds.

"It's definitely something to come and see," said Nicole Ort-Moke, manager of Ort Farms. "To see it is a shock."

It's also one of the reasons we picked Ort Farms as one of the 10 places to go pumpkin picking this year.

Starr, who says he has taken a well-deserved ribbing from friends and neighbors, has been fascinated with gigantic pumpkins since his childhood, and told his wife of his fascination in passing. He received the seeds two years ago.

On his first try last spring, Starr's biggest pumpkin was 150 pounds, he said. After fine-tuning the complicated growing process, he landed in the record book with his second crop, behind only the 919-pound behemoth grown by South Jersey resident Andy Wetzel, Starr said.

After finishing 10th at a pumpkin festival in Doylestown, Pa. two weeks ago, Starr called Ort Farms and offered the pumpkin.

"I said nobody is going to see this pumpkin in my front yard," Starr said. "I wanted other people to enjoy it, too."

Starr planted the seeds from Atlantic Giant variety on April 15. The prize pumpkin is one of four grown by Starr in a 20-by-25 area this summer. The others checked in at 750, 400 and 300 pounds, respectively, he said.

The pumpkin is white because it was under a tent, Starr said. Lots of fertilizer, water, organic materials and help from Mother Nature were required for Starr to grow his great pumpkin, which gained as much as 30 pounds per day at its peak, Starr said. His biggest challenge was keeping it disease-free.

"You have to stay on top of it," Starr said.

Ort Farms, which used to grow its own giant pumpkins in the 1980s- its biggest was in the 400-pound range - plans to keep the prodigious pumpkin until the first week in November. Then, Starr said he'll retrieve it, break it down and use it to help grow his next crop.

Starr's goal next summer, he said, is to beat Wetzel's state record. –NJ

Locally Speaking

Demands For Medical Marijuana Research Grow In N.J.

The federal government won't spend money to study it, and leading medical associations won't recommend it, but marijuana has a growing legion of believers in the plant's potential to combat untreatable epilepsy in children.

The shift in public opinion began three years ago in Colorado when news spread on social media that Charlotte Figi, a 5-year-old girl suffering with 50 seizures a day, was making dramatic improvement while taking an oral cannabis extract. The success of that strain named Charlotte’s Web, generated international media attention, including two CNN documentaries.

The public attention encouraged the Epilepsy Foundation to speak out. The top leaders of the organization for the 2.5 million people diagnosed with the neurological disorder called on the federal government in February to cease classifying marijuana as a harmful and addictive drug with no medicinal value, so research may be allowed to flourish.

“Nothing should stand in the way of patients gaining access to potentially life-saving treatment,” according to the statement from the foundation’s President and CEO Philip Gattone and Board Director Warren Lammert, both parents of children diagnosed with epilepsy. “If a patient and their healthcare professionals feel that the potential benefits of medical marijuana for uncontrolled epilepsy outweigh the risks, then families need to have that legal option now – not in five years or 10 years.”

There is one FDA-approved clinical trial that began last fall led by renowned pediatric neurologist Orrin Devinsky at Saint Barnabas and NYU. The trial is studying how 125 children are affected by a drug made by GW Pharmaceuticals in the United Kingdom from pure cannabidiol, a non-psychoactive component of the cannabis plant. It is the same active ingredient in Charlotte’s Web.

Physicians and scientists acknowledge their understanding of the complex cannabis plant is limited.

Cannabis has about 500 chemical compounds, but the two most common are Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, and Cannabidiol, or CBD.

THC, which gives the user a euphoric "high" feeling, is better understood. THC is recognized for its ability to improve appetite, relieve pain, induce sleep and reduce the effects of spasms. But it is also linked to “acute psychotic episodes, latent mental health problems (e.g. bipolar disorder) and ataxia (a movement disorder),” according to an email from Benjamin Whalley, a neuropharmacology professor at Reading University in England who is collaborating with Devinsky.

“Use during childhood/adolescence has been linked to a permanent reduction in IQ," he added.

The American Academy of Pediatrics opposes marijuana for any medicinal purpose, but it has not issued a position in a decade.

About 25 years ago, researchers discovered that THC interacts with the endocannabinoid system, which is located within receptor cell membranes that regulate mood, pain, appetite and memory.

California pediatric specialist Bonni Goldstein, who has evaluated about 150 children with epilepsy for her state’s medical marijuana program, describes the receptor as a lock and the THC as a key, and when they come together, chemical reactions occur that can, for example, reduce pain.

CBD is getting the most attention now for its apparent anti-inflammatory properties. Unlike THC, it doesn’t give users “a high,” and it appears to work outside of the endocannabinoid system. It is believed that CBD interacts with other “orphan” cell receptors, according to Whalley.

“The leading theory,” Devinsky said, is that after CBD is consumed, it changes the activity inside the cell to make seizures less likely. Whalley said CBD appears to reduce the “excitability” inside the cell.

CBD alone cannot control seizures. Even in his high-CBD strains there are small amounts of THC. Matthew Lindsey, operations manager at Realm of Caring, the nonprofit that provides children with Charlotte’s Web, said they’ve heard from some families the combination is essential.

“The THC-CBD combo, many parents are finding out, that it plays a real critical role in helping their child overcome whatever ailment or adult overcome whatever ailment they are facing,” Lindsey said.
“That is why research is absolutely so important right now, for us to know why this plant is doing what it is doing. We don’t know.”

Goldstein, a Cherry Hill native who graduated from the University of Medicine and Dentistry medical school, said she encounters many parents who struggle with the decision to use cannabis.

“For many people it still has the stigma,” Goldstein said. "But we can no longer talk about medical marijuana as one thing. There is THC and CBD and they are very different. Most of what people think about marijuana is THC-related."

Meghan Wilson, who moved her family from Scotch Plains to Denver in February so they could buy Charlotte’s Web and THC oil for her 3-year-old daughter, Vivian, who has Dravet syndrome, which can be a deadly form of epilepsy, said the controversy surrounding marijuana use in children is not a major concern.

“Vivian’s brain was seizing all day long. To talk about the effect of THC on a growing brain when she is having seizures all day long – you can’t compare that,” Wilson said. “We don’t know how long she is going to live, so this is about quality of life.”

GLOSSARY

Cannabidiol: (CBD) One of the active compounds in cannabis that does not provide a euphoric high feeling but is valued for its anti-inflammatory properties. (see Charlotte's Web)

Cannabis: the scientific name for marijuana.

Cannabinoids: A group of about 60 compounds in cannabis that interact with specific receptors present located on the surface of cells.

Charlotte’s Web: a strain of hemp produced by Realm of Caring, a nonprofit marijuana grower in Colorado. It contains the highest concentration of CBD. Hundreds of children with untreatable epilepsy are using to prevent seizures.

Dravet syndrome: a catastrophic form of epilepsy beginning in infancy, and occurring in 1 in 30,000 births. The disorder interferes with development, movement and balance, growth, sleep and speech. Children with Dravet are at risk of sudden unexplained death in epilepsy. Dravet sufferers usually require lifelong care.
 
Epilepsy: A neurological disorder diagnosed by the occurrence of two or more provoked seizures. Epilepsy can be triggered by illness, brain injury, abnormal brain development and genetic conditions. Some 2.3 million people in the nation are diagnosed with it, including 1 million who live with uncontrolled seizures.
 
Ketogenic diet: a carefully-weighed regimen of food that is high in fat and low in carbohydrates. The diet has been shown to curb seizures. A typical meal includes a small amount of fruit or vegetable, a protein-rich food, and a source of fat such as heavy cream and butter or vegetable oil.

Tetrahydrocannabinol: (THC) One of the primary active ingredients in cannabis that gives the user a euphoric "high" feeling. Recognized for its appetite-improving, pain-relieving, sleep-inducing and spasm-reducing effects, as well as its negative effects on judgment, memory, reaction time and cognition. –NJ

 NYC: 3 Cases Of  Meningitis In HIV-Positive Gay Men

Persons with HIV are at a greater risk of acquiring meningitis. Vaccinations are available.

New York City's Health Department says it's investigating three cases of meningitis that have developed in HIV-positive gay men over the last two weeks.

The department says Friday it's recommending meningitis vaccinations for all men who regularly have intimate contact with other men.

It says men with HIV are at a greater risk of acquiring meningitis.

The department says two cases of the often-deadly disease were reported within the last three days. All of the recent cases were in Brooklyn or Queens.

Early symptoms are similar to the flu, with fever, chills, weakness and muscle aches. It may later include headache, stiff neck, and widespread rash.

A previous meningitis outbreak among gay men ended in February 2013 after 22 cases were reported. Of those, 7 were fatal. –Gayly

Locally Speaking

One Year After Horrific Boardwalk Fire, Seaside Mayors Looking For Fresh Start

When Robert Matthies of Seaside Park and William Akers of Seaside Heights look toward the southern end of the boardwalk that straddles their towns, the two mayors see a blank canvas.

In the year since a fire destroyed nearly 60 buildings and an amusement pier along a three-block stretch of boardwalk, few businesses have returned. But rather than lament what was, the mayors and several business owners are embracing what they say is a rare chance to build anew on old memories.

“For me, it’s a sense of excitement, newness,” Akers said. “You don’t get these kinds of opportunities. These are life-changing opportunities.”

The boardwalk, a hodgepodge of decades of kitsch, is going through a complete overhaul. After Hurricane Sandy destroyed most of the boardwalk in Seaside Heights, the town had a new wooden promenade by last summer.

Akers said the community took advantage of the need to rebuild to install more attractive light poles and other fixtures and upgrade the façade of the time-worn lifeguard headquarters.

Months later, after the repairs were completed, part of the boardwalk was destroyed again, this time by a fast-moving blaze on Sept. 12 that investigators concluded was caused by faulty electrical wiring.

The blaze, fueled by 30-mile-an-hour winds and an abundance of flammable material, turned into a three-block-long inferno that destroyed nearly everything in its path.

Akers and Matthies remember Gov. Chris Christie touring the ruins the night of the fire. “He was telling us what was going to happen and the time frame it was going to happen in,” Akers said.

Within a week, Christie announced he was making $15 million in federal Sandy aid available to the boardwalk businesses, a move that angered some homeowners and housing advocates who said the money should not have been diverted. The state also pledged to shoulder the cost of demolition and debris removal after the fire.

Approaching the anniversary of the blaze, Christie defended his decision and said he would not have done things differently. He said home values would have plummeted if the boardwalk businesses had disappeared.

“The overwhelming amount of money went to homeowners — I mean by a 3- or 4-to-1 margin,” he said. “So I have absolutely no second thoughts about doing that, and I know that we wouldn’t have the recovery going on as quickly as we have it without it.”

Virginia Pellerin, a spokeswoman for the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, which administers the Sandy business grants and loans, said that so far four businesses in Seaside Park that had been whiplashed by the storm and then the fire have been approved to receive a total of $445,000.

The towns awarded an emergency cleanup contract to Eagle Paving, owned by Bill Major, for $4.7 million. Of the $5 million in federal disaster recovery funds the state set aside for cleanup after the fire, it used $2.8 million after the towns met their insurance obligations, Pellerin said. Mike Loundy, director of community improvements for Seaside Heights, said the town knew it had to overcome the perception that it wasn’t open for business after the one-two punch of Sandy and the fire.

He said that because rentals were slow, local officials decided to target day-trippers in the town’s ad campaigns.

“The fire was a punch in our gut that absolutely nobody saw coming,” he said. “It was difficult enough to have people understand we were rebuilt after Sandy.”

Both Akers and Matthies said their beach revenue actually increased this summer over 2012, the year Sandy struck, leavings billions of dollars in damages in its wake.

The fire consumed only one block of the boardwalk in Seaside Heights but ash was sent flying as far as six blocks north, igniting several more blocks of buildings.

A first attempt at a firebreak did nothing because the gap wasn’t wide enough to halt the fire’s progress, Akers said. It took a second, wider firebreak, cut into the boardwalk at Dupont Avenue, to stop the flames from igniting more of the wooden promenade.

Akers said he watched the fire creep toward him as he stood on the boardwalk a block north of Dupont.

“You’re looking at all that beautiful boardwalk that you just built being crushed right in front of you and you were never so grateful to see it happen,” Akers said.

For its part, Seaside Heights permitted a row of businesses, situated in a strip of plywood booths between Dupont and Lincoln avenues, to operate for a year while owners develop plans for more permanent structures and to recoup some of their financial losses.

“We figured it was better to have something rather than nothing,” Akers said. “We knew people were going to come down here and were going to expect some things, see progress, see movement, and we thought temporary was the best way to do it at this point.”

In all, nearly 60 businesses in those three blocks — two in Seaside Park and one in Seaside Heights — were destroyed. The only oceanfront buildings left standing were in Seaside Park, the Saw Mill Café and an adjacent arcade.

Matthies, the Seaside Park mayor, said those two buildings were saved by the Saw Mill’s exterior sprinkler system.

The most glaring evidence of the fire is the empty stretch of beach in Seaside Park where the Fun Town Pier — damaged extensively by Sandy — stood.

Major, who also owns the pier, had applied to the state Department of Environmental Protection for a permit to extend the pier 300 feet east. But his grandson, Greg McLaughlin, said the family was considering several options, including selling, after the second disaster.

“It’s bittersweet because we obviously want to be back in business and do what we love to do,” McLaughlin said.

He said there have been suggestions to rebuild the amusement pier, build a beach bar, or turn it into a water park or concert hall.

Matthies said he doesn’t know what the boardwalk will look like by next Memorial Day,

“When you look out, we’re missing a pier,” he said. “We’re missing an amusement area, we’re missing a number of different ... concessions, eateries, games of chance, retail stores, Exactly how they’re going to be put back together and in what configuration is uncertain.” -NJ


7 Critical Cases The N.J. Supreme Court Will Decide This Year

Medicaid benefits for immigrants. Whether leaving a toddler unattended in a car for 10 minutes is child abuse. Who should pay if you slip on grease at a Kentucky Fried Chicken.

These topics are among the dozens of cases the New Jersey Supreme Court is likely to hear in the coming months after beginning a new one-year term last week.

It comes as an ongoing feud over the makeup of the court begins to settle. After years of warring with Democratic lawmakers over court appointments, Republican Gov. Chris Christie and state Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) struck a deal giving tenure for the next 16 years to Chief Justice Stuart Rabner. As part of the agreement, Justice Lee Solomon, a Republican judge, was elevated to one of the court's two vacancies.

The Supreme Court typically takes up about 80 to 100 cases a year. Here is a look at seven of the most critical ones:

1. Medicaid benefits for immigrants

In a case that could affect thousands of legal immigrants across New Jersey, the court is set to consider whether the state broke the law by making changes to a Medicaid program.

In 2011, a group of immigrants filed a class-action lawsuit alleging that the state Legislature violated the state and federal constitutions by allowing the state Department of Human Services to alter requirements the NJ Family Care program — which provides Medicaid coverage to low-income residents — in a way that excluded legal immigrants who had been in the country for fewer than five years. The move denied coverage to about 8,000 immigrants. The state said the change was needed to cut costs as policymakers dealt with a budget crisis.

A state appeals court ruled last year that the state did not violate the law and that it had the authority to decide how to save money within the program.

2. Police in Camden

This case could throw a wrench into the recently established Camden County police force, which took over law enforcement in the crime-ridden city of Camden — a move championed by both Christie and Sweeney in their effort to revitalized the troubled city.

In 2012, a group of Camden residents submitted a petition to block the city from disbanding its police department to make way for the county force. It called for the city to put the move on the ballot so residents could vote.

Mayor Dana Redd, a Democrat, sued to stop the petition process later that year. In a ruling that June, Superior Court Judge Faustino Fernandez-Vina — now an associate justice on the Supreme Court — ruled that the petition "created an undue restraint" on future city governments. But a state appellate court sent the case back to the trial court level last year.

3. Whistleblower protection

The court will hear two cases about whistleblower protections for public and private employees — both of which could lead to far-reaching rulings.

In one, the court will consider whether a defendant can be indicted for theft and official misconduct for taking confidential documents from her public employer.

Ivonne Saavedra, a clerk for the North Bergen school board, is seeking to dismiss a 2012 indictment that charges her with stealing township documents. Saavedra claimed she was a victim of gender, ethnic, and sex discrimination and said she took the files to support her claims in a discrimination lawsuit she filed against the board in 2009.

Two courts have upheld her indictment.

In the other case, the court will consider whether "watchdog employees" — those who monitor whether an employer complies with laws and regulations — can seek whistleblower protection under state law.

Joel Lippman claims that he was fired from Ethicon, a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, in retaliation for raising concerns about the safety of their programs. A trial court ruled against him, but Lippman argued that the court's interpretation of state law was too narrow. A state appellate court sided with Lippman last year.

4. Abuse of children

The court will consider at least two questions related to child abuse: Is it abuse to leave a toddler unattended in a car for five to 10 minutes? And is it abuse when a newborn is harmed by a pregnant woman's use of methadone to fight addiction?

The first case involves a mother who left her 19-month-old child in her car at the Middlesex Mall in South Plainfield for five to 10 minutes while she shopped for party supplies in 2009. An appellate court found the behavior of the mother, identified in court papers by the pseudonym Eleanor, constituted "abuse or neglect."

The second case involves a woman, identified only as Y.N., who struggled with a dependency on opioid painkillers. When she found out she was pregnant, she said she followed doctor's orders by beginning methadone treatment. Her baby was found to have neonatal abstinence syndrome, a side effect of such treatment. The mother was charged with violating child abuse laws.

The case is similar to a ruling Rabner wrote in 2013 holding that a pregnant woman who used cocaine two days before giving birth was not guilty of neglect because the child turned out healthy and New Jersey's child-abuse law does not apply to unborn children.

5. A verdict and religious bias

In this case, the court will consider whether possible religious bias infected a verdict against a defendant of Hindu descent, who was accused of sexual harassment in the workplace.

Dr. Abez Husain was sued in 2007 for allegedly making sexually inappropriate comments and gestures at work. A jury ruled against the doctor. But after the verdict, court papers said, the judge spoke with jurors off the record and without attorneys present, and a juror noted that Husain did not touch the bible when being sworn to testify. The judge then notified attorneys, the papers said.

Husain, who said he did not touch the bible for cultural reasons, appealed the ruling. A state appeals court admonished the judge but denied a new trial.

6. Slipping at Kentucky Fried Chicken

Is Kentucky Fried Chicken liable for a customer slipping and falling?

Janice Prioleau claimed she fell at the chain's Cherry Hill location amid a storm, slipping on a mix of grease and water and injuring her neck and back. A trial court awarded Prioleau a $138,000 reward, but an appeals court reversed the decision and remanded a new trial.

7. Where should courts hear allegations of sex assault on a class trip to Germany?

The court will weigh whether New Jersey has jurisdiction to try a pair of Bergen County teachers who accused of sexually assaulting students they were chaperoning on a school trip in Germany.

The case of Artur Sopel and Michael Sumulikoski, who deny any improper contact with the students, has been on hold for more than two years as the court considers whether state prosecutors can level charges based on events that allegedly occurred in a foreign country. The men supervised a group of students from Paramus Catholic High School on a study-abroad trip in 2011. They are accused of assaulting at least three students, all aged 17 at the time.

A trial judge and an appellate court have ruled that the case can move forward because there is enough of a link to New Jersey. –NJ

Locally Speaking

As Atlantic City Casinos Close, Ghost Town Replaces Boardwalk Empire

It was 90 degrees at the Jersey Shore yesterday and the north beach in Atlantic City was almost empty.

The boardwalk, too, except for a few tourists who wandered up the quarter mile of bare boards to gawk and photograph the mirrored walls and imposing tower of the resort’s latest glass-and-steel white elephant, the Revel.

The exterior murals of Revel have a surfing endless summer kind of theme, but what is happening in Atlantic City now is the beginning of a long winter.

The Showboat closed Sunday and next door neighbor Revel closed Monday, taking with them about 4,000 jobs, leaving the north end of the boardwalk a ghost town.

Trump Plaza, which is connected to the famed Boardwalk Hall, will close Sept. 16, after the Miss America pageant.

Miss America returned to home Atlantic City two year ago, seven years after running off to Vegas, to fulfill its original promise of bringing tourists to the boardwalk for New Jersey’s beautiful month of September. But it won’t save Trump Plaza, which along with Caesars next door, were the center stanchions of Atlantic City’s gambling era heyday.

This was in the mid-1980s when the town hosted the megafights of the day: Mike Tyson and Michael Spinks; Tyson and Larry Holmes; Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran III; and, Evander Holyfield and George Foreman.

The casinos led by Trump and Caesars kicked in for site fees and Vegas couldn’t compete. But that is ancient history now, as ancient as Caesar himself.

When Trump Plaza closes, the workforce casualties will rise to nearly 6,000, about 20 percent of Atlantic City’s hospitality workforce.

Gaming in Atlantic City isn’t dead, but it has to go on a crash diet to survive.

The all-time high revenue of $5.2 billion from eight years ago has fallen by 50 percent, eroded by out-of-state competition, sometimes brought on by the very same companies that built up Atlantic City. (See The Sands in Bethlehem, Pa., which has siphoned off a huge piece of the New York bus trip market.) Now companies are closing even profitable casinos, like Caesars shutting The Showboat to try and protect the health of its three other properties in Atlantic City.

Bill Terrigino sees it not as the death of the town, but a painful evolution.

"The fascination of slot machines is over with," Terrigino said. "More gambling isn’t the solution. If we don’t make it fun for people in Atlantic City, they’ll make us irrelevant."

FUN IN THE SURF

And what could be more fun than that big blue thing out there.

From the start of the casino era, Atlantic City turned its back on its history as "the beach" and "the boardwalk."

"The primary focus has been gambling," said Bruce Abrams, who works in the city-run art museum across the boards from The Showboat. It was almost empty yesterday as was the adjacent history museum.

"We threw all the eggs in one basket. Maybe this is a wake-up call."

True enough, the early casinos faced Pacific Avenue and trying to find the boardwalk through them entailed going through a maze of spinning wheels and ringing bells.

Still today, there are long stretches of the boardwalk with nothing to eat except in the overpriced casinos, few restrooms and changing facilities — and parking is expensive and distant.

Atlantic City took its greatest attraction and made it inaccessible.

As for amusements, the rides at the famed Steel Pier look like nothing more than a local church carnival bolted to the boards.

WHERE IS EVERYONE?

Even yesterday — 90 degrees and sunny on a day that is still summer for everyone without school children — the beaches were far, far from packed.

"Our beaches are beautiful. You can’t beat it,’ said Terrigino, "but other towns do better bringing people to the beach."

Terrigino and his wife, Kathy, were two of the first workers to lose their jobs when the Atlantic Club closed last winter.

"These are the bookends," said Terrigino, who lives across the street from Revel. "The Atlantic Club was all the way at the south end of the boardwalk, and Revel is at the north end. I lost my job last winter and yesterday (Monday) I lost my neighbor."

They also own the house closest to the beach near the Revel.

Yesterday, there were more gawkers looking at the empty hotels — few as they were — and men pushing empty rolling chairs, than there were people on the north beach.

If you want to know what went wrong in Atlantic City, there it is.

If you want to know how to fix it, there it is.

-NJ

Locally Speaking

Insurers Seeking Double-Digit ObamaCare Premium Hikes In NY

Insurance firms participating in New York’s ObamaCare health exchange are seeking double-digit hikes for patient medical premiums in 2015, new figures reviewed by The Post reveal.

The average hike sought by insurers for individual plans is 12 percent—but a number of firms serving large numbers of patients want to boost individual premiums by nearly 20 percent.

Leading the charge is Excellus Health Plan, which is seeking to sock more than 24,000 customers with a 19.7 percent hike.

The even larger MVP Health Plan, with nearly 33,000 customers, is seeking a 19 percent boost.

While a number of smaller plans put in for lesser increases or, in a number of cases, decreases, Health Republic Insurance of New York — the largest on the exchange with more than 68,000 members — requested a 15.2 percent increase for individual plans.

The proposed rate increases call into question one of the goals of the Affordable Care Act — curbing runaway health-care costs.

In some letters to customers, insurers cited requirements in ObamaCare as contributing to the proposed rate increases.

“Our goal in pricing is to match expected medical spending — including medical costs, utilization and mandated coverage — with premiums. Other factors include plan design and new taxes and fees,” said Maria Gordon Shydlo, a spokeswoman at UnitedHealthCare.

The Rye-based health insurer wants a 12.5 percent increase for small group plans, but a decrease of 2.4 percent for individual plans.

The overall rate hike sought by insurers, which includes those both on and off New York’s health exchange and those serving either small groups or individuals, was 13.2 percent, according to officials at the state Department of Financial Services, which regulates the insurance industry.

They noted that the agency has final say over what the rate hikes will actually be in 2015, the second year of the exchange.

Officials said the submissions are under review and a final decision is expected to be made by the end of August.

“We are going to scrutinize these rate requests very closely in order to protect New Yorkers and ensure they are not subject to any unjustified rate increases,” said DFS Superintendent Ben Lawsky. –NY Post

Locally Speaking

Obamacare Enrollment Drives Down NJ's Uninsuranced Rate By 38 Percent
 
The first look at the Affordable Care Act’s impact on New Jersey reveals the percentage of uninsured people is on track to reach its lowest level in nearly a quarter of a century, according to a new report released Thursday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The proportion of uninsured adults decreased 38 percent from September to early March, according to the foundation. That decline is likely to accelerate, knowing that many people waited until the last minute to beat the March 30 enrollment deadline.

"These findings suggest that uninsurance in New Jersey is at its lowest level since 1990," according to the report produced by the foundation and the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy.

The survey results suggest that many concerns about the law — from Gov. Chris Christie hand-off approach to its implementation, to the Obama administration’s troubled launch of the HealthCare.Gov website — did not create insurmountable roadblocks.

The foundation report said that in September, about 21 percent of New Jerseyans age 18-64 were uninsured. It was down to about 13 percent in early March.

"What this tells us is mandates work," said Joel Cantor, director of the Rutgers center, which collaborated with the foundation to analyze survey results from about 450 New Jerseyans. "What we are seeing here that the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion really did crack the affordability barrier for people."

About 162,000 New Jerseyans signed up for private insurance using the federally run health exchange, and 140,000 for Medicaid, according to federal officials.

About 26 percent of eligible New Jerseyans signed up for health coverage through the marketplace, compared to the 28 percent of eligible people who signed up in New York, according to the Urban Institute, the public policy research center whose analysis of national enrollment data formed the basis of the New Jersey survey.

"Despite the fact that New Jersey did not build its own exchange and did relatively little at the state level to promote the Affordable Care Act, New Jersey’s enrollment performance was not significantly different than that of New York, Rhode Island and Connecticut, three states that are considered to have built successful state marketplaces," according to the report.

The New Jersey analysis also found:

• 85 percent of enrollees qualified for a tax break;

• 25 percent enrollees were 18 to 34 years old;

• 63 percent of enrollees are white; about 16 percent are Asian; about 13 percent are black and just under 7 percent are Latino.

Over time, Cantor predicts uninsured people who have relied on charity care and emergency rooms for their medical needs will form relationships with doctors and other medical providers.

"It is hard to say when charity care would decline. You won’t see reduction in demand for ER services right away if that is where you are going for your care. It will take more than an insurance card to get people out of ER," Cantor said.

For its inaugural year, the law succeeded in reaching low-income uninsured, said Stephen Zuckerman, a health economist at the Urban Institute. About half of those who enrolled qualified for Medicaid, and 40 percent qualified for subsidies.

"The people who are gaining coverage are the ones who needed it," Zuckerman said.

Alescia Marie Teel, spokeswoman for Enroll America, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization of staff and volunteers that held 1,500 events to promote the law, said the decline in the rate of this who don’t hve insurance os gratifying.

"We are thrilled that so many uninsured New Jersey residents now have access to affordable health coverage — many for the first time," Teel said. "We look forward to continuing to deliver information to residents where they are and connecting them to in-person enrollment assistance to ensure that they have every opportunity to access affordable, quality health insurance." -Nj

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New York Is Being Sued For $2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

One man is suing Manhattan, Au Bon Pain and a bunch of people for $2 undecillion

A New York City man is reportedly suing an Au Bon Pain, Carepoint Health, Hoboken University Medical Center, Kmart (Store 7749), the St. Luke’s Emergency Dept., New York City  Transit Authority, the City of New York, NYC MTA, LaGuardia Airport Administration and a whole bunch of people for $2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. That’s $2 undecillion, or a two with 36 zeroes behind it, which is way more money than what the world can offer, and, as XCKD’s What If blog points out, pretty much anything anyone can imagine.

Sixty-two year old Anthony Purisima, who is representing himself, filed the 22-page complaint in Manhattan federal court reports the New York Post. The suit claims that the alleged violations, which include “Civil rights violations, personal injury, discrimination on national origin, retaliation, harassment, fraud, attempted murder, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and conspiracy to defraud,” began when a ‘rabies-infected’ dog on an MTA bus bit and infected Purisima’s middle finger, and a ‘Chinese couple’ took photos of him against his permission at the hospital.

Though the lawsuit lists the damage as “priceless,” but Purisima decided that $2 undecillion seems appropriate. –Salon

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Christie Being Investigated For Yet Another Bridge Scandal
 
Investigators are said to be examining whether the Port Authority deceived bond holders at Christie's request

It may be hard to believe, but if a report from the New York Times is true, Chris Christie may have yet another bridge-related scandal on his hands.

According to the Times, prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney’s office public corruption unit and two lawyers from the SEC are investigating whether the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PA) committed securities violations in 2011 when it agreed to pay for repairs to the Pulaski Skyway, the elevated roadway connecting Jersey City and Newark.

This was done, the Times reports, despite multiple warnings from in-house lawyers that the PA lacked the authority to pay for the Skyway’s upkeep.

Reportedly pressured by the Christie administration to approve and finance the repairs, the PA may have broken the law when, in bond documents, it described the Skyway expenditures as being related to “Lincoln Tunnel Access Infrastructure Improvements,” even though the Skyway and the Tunnel are not connected.

According to New York state’s Martin Act, whether or not the PA’s deception was intended is immaterial; prosecutors can level felony charges without having to prove a further intent to defraud, or even show that any fraud occurred at all.

    In addition to the Pulaski Skyway, the Manhattan district attorney is also in the early stages  of investigating repair projects on the Goethals and Bayonne Bridges, among others. While prosecutors have issued dozens of subpoenas, no formal accusations have been made and the precise targets of the inquiry, whether individuals or agencies, remain unclear.

    …

    One person briefed on the matter said the funds had been used to fill a hole in the New Jersey state budget, noting that the inquiries seek to determine whether the fiscal contortions were creative politics or criminal maneuvers. –Salon