Top Port Authority cops say Baroni wanted them to lie

Paul Nunziato, left, and Mike DeFilippis, right, leave federal court on Tuesday

Paul Berger reports for The Record:

Two top cops at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey described to a federal jury on Tuesday how one of Governor Christie’s allies embroiled them in a plot to cover up the politically-motivated closure of access lanes to the George Washington Bridge.


Paul Nunziato and Mike DeFilippis, the president and second vice-president of the Port Authority Police Benevolent Association, said that Christie’s ally, Bill Baroni, told them to falsely take partial responsibility for the lane closures.

They said that when they refused, Baroni lied on their behalf anyway, telling New Jersey lawmakers that Nunziato and DeFilippis had requested lane changes at the bridge because of concerns over the safety of traffic officers.

Deborah Gramiccioni outside federal court 

Earlier in the day, jurors heard testimony from a former Christie aide, Deborah Gramiccioni, who described how the governor’s deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, became increasingly distraught as the true motivation for the lane closures began to spill out into the public during the winter of 2013 and as Governor Christie became increasingly angry.


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In New Jersey, how much affordable housing is enough?

         Karen Yi reports for the Asbury Park Press:


The past does matter,  according to one state judge.
Advocates for housing priced for people in the middle or at the lower end of the income scale are celebrating a ruling by Superior Court Judge Douglas K. Wolfson, sitting in Middlesex County, who said towns must account for a backlog of housing needs that accumulated when state oversight of such efforts failed.
The ruling comes weeks before New Jersey’s Supreme Court is expected to settle the question of whether municipalities should accommodate affordable-housing needs built up during a 16-year “gap period” when the state agency tasked with ensuring compliance disintegrated.
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New Jersey gas-tax showdown postponed until Friday

On Wednesday, final votes in the New Jersey Assembly and Senate on the 23-cent gasoline tax hike to fill the tank of the Transportation Trust Fund had to be pushed off until Friday
due a procedural issue.


Opponents hope the delay will give residents time to light up lawmakers’ phones and emails with demands that they vote
NO on the legislative package.


Potential Democratic candidates for governor, Ray Lesniak and John Wizniewski, are out front in opposing the fuel hike and the accompanying elimination of the inheritance tax.

Senate President Steve Sweeney, a prominent candidate for governor on the ‘D’ side, is for the package.


Brenda Flanagan has the details above for NJTV NEWS


Other news coverage
NJ gas tax vote delayed until Friday
Legislators phones ringing off the hook 


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NJ gas-tax showdown postponed until Friday

Final votes in the New Jersey Assembly and Senate on the 23-cent gasoline tax
hike to fill the tank of the Transportation Trust Fund had to be pushed off until
Friday due a procedural issue.


Opponents hope the delay will give residents time to light up lawmakers’ phones
and emails with demands that they vote NO on the legislative package.


Potential Democratic candidates for governor, Ray Lesniak and John Wizniewski,
are out front in opposing the fuel hike and the accompanying elimination of the
inheritance tax. Senate President Steve Sweeney, one of two leading candidates
 for governor on the D side, is for the package.


Brenda Flanagan has the details above for NJTV NEWS


Other news coverage
NJ gas tax vote delayed until Friday
Legislators phones ringing off the hook 


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Wildstein finally exits hot seat at Bridgegate trial

After more than a week and three days of testifying against two governors, a number of Port Authority honchos, New Jersey and New York officials and–oh yes–the two people
on trial, the prosecution’s star witness, David Wildstein,
steps down. 

Michael Aron has the latest for NJTV NEWS above.

Other Bridgegate coverage:
Bridgegate trial:Wildstein lets it rip final day on stand
Witness: Gov.’s office froze out critics
Christie to freeholder: ‘F-ing destroy you’ 
The Christie Tracker Podcast: The Bridgegate Trial – Week 3
The Bridgegate trial is full of hearsay smears
Poll: Do you believe David Wildstein’s testimony at the Bridgegate trial?

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Fed aide to help Pa. farmers keep cow crap out of creeks

Ad Crable reports for Lancaster Online:
For months now, farmers in Lancaster County and Pennsylvania have been warned about how much more they have to do to reduce runoff of manure and soil.
On Tuesday, state and federal officials produced the carrot to match the big stick.
Pennsylvania, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced they will spend $28 million on aid directly to farmers as well as technical assistance specifically in south-central Pennsylvania.
 
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This new federal and state funding will allow more farmers in the Commonwealth to plant streamside buffers, reduce runoff from barnyards, get the required management plans, and other measures critical to the health of Pennsylvania waters and the Chesapeake Bay.

The money will help Lancaster farmers avoid potential penalties from state and federal agencies for not having some required pollution-reduction plans — farming is blamed for widespread death of  aquatic life in the Chesapeake Bay, the country’s largest estuary.
 

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