Donald Trump’s New Jersey golf courses are under fire

Nothing named Trump can escape the reputation of the Republican presidential candidate, Sam Newhouse writes for Metro:
For Donald Trump’s Trump National Golf Courses in New Jersey, they’re facing a double whammy.
At Trump National Golf Club Philadelphia, located in Pine Hill in South Jersey, a gay employee is suing, claiming he was pelted with golf balls and rocks by coworkers, and supervisors did nothing to help him.
Eleazar Andres, of Lindenwold, filed a lawsuit against the Trump National Golf Course in May 2015 saying he called a f—-t in May 2014, NJ.com reported.
Andres alleged that fellow employees threw rocks and golf balls at him, even though he had to seek medical treatment. He claims supervisors didn’t take action, and after he filed a police report because he no longer felt safe going to work, he was fired. 
The lawsuit became an issue on the campaign trail after Democrat Hillary Clinton brought it up.
“It is deeply disturbing that instead of stepping in to stop the tormentors, Trump’s golf club turned on the victim for coming forward,” Clinton said during a speech Tuesday in Manchester, New Hampshire. “If that’s how Donald Trump runs his business, what does that say about how he would run our country?”
Secondly, Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in Central Jersey is facing criticism from Democratic senators who say the U.S. Women’s Open needs to find a new golf course because of Trump’s various comments about women.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey (who is facing federal bribery and corruption charges) joined fellow Democratic senators Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Edward Markey of Massachusetts in a call for the U.S. Women’s Open to move from Trump National Golf Club Bedminster to a new venue.
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Two new NatGas plants moving forward in Pennsylvania

Two new natural gas processing facilities are advancing in Southwest Pennsylvania, with both expected to be operational by next year.

Jamison Cocklin reports for NGI’s Shale Daily:


MPLX LP subsidiary MarkWest Energy Partners LP is building the Harmon Creek Complex in Washington County, according to spokesman Kevin Hawkins. The facility was originally announced as the Fox Complex before it was renamed. It had been put on hold, but the company is planning to bring it online sometime next year.

“We’re trying to install these facilities on an adjusted-time basis with producers, that’s really important to us,” Hawkins said. “We want to bring facilities on when the producer needs them to accommodate the production ramp and growth profile.”

Since MPLX — the midstream master limited partnership of Marathon Petroleum Corp. — acquired MarkWest last year, the company has said a number of projects are under review or development (see Shale Daily, Sept. 26; Dec. 1, 2015). The company has highlighted plans to expand its Hopedale, Cadiz, Bluestone, Majorsville and Sherwood facilities in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania in the coming years. Harmon Creek is a newbuild that Hawkins said is being built to support the growth of Range Resources Corp.

The facility would have 200 MMcf/d of cryogenic processing capacity and a 20,000 b/d de-ethanization facility. A pipeline would connect Harmon Creek with MarkWest’s Houston Processing and Fractionation facility where natural gas liquids (NGL) could be separated.

FirstEnergy Corp. said last week that it started work on a $40 million project in Washington County to serve the power needs of Harmon Creek and another nearby processing facility announced by Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP) (see Shale Daily, Oct. 20). ETP said last year it would spend $1.5 billion on 110 miles of gas gathering pipeline, a cryogenic processing plant, NGL pipelines and a fractionation facility it would call the Revolution System (see Shale Daily, June 8, 2015).

The cryogenic processing plant would be located in Washington County’s Smith Township, where supervisors earlier this year approved the project for a 135-acre site. ETP could not be reached to comment about progress on the plant, but the company has said it expects the Revolution System to be operational by 4Q2017. NGLs from the Revolution plant would be delivered on Sunoco Logistics Partners LP’s Mariner East pipelines to the Marcus Hook Industrial Complex near Philadelphia, where ETP also plans to build a fractionation facility.

Residue gas from the facility would be delivered to ETP’s 3.25 Bcf/d Rover pipeline, which would move gas to the Midwest and Canada beginning sometime next year (see Shale Daily, July 29). The project is being developed under long-term gathering, processing and fractionation agreements with privately-owned EdgeMarc Energy to serve its production in Western Pennsylvania.

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Jersey garbage company tops Pa T-Pike toll-dodger list


A New Jersey garbage company tops the list of commercial toll violators that owe Pennsylvania more than $1.5 million in unpaid tolls and fees, according to the Turnpike Commission.


The commission released a list of 24 companies – mostly trucking companies – that have multiple unpaid tolls and violations.


Green Coast Logistics of South Plainfield had 7,631 outstanding violations and owed the state $678,483.91. Calls to the company were not returned.

Of the top commercial violators, 10 companies are from New Jersey, eight from Pennsylvania, two each from Virginia and  Arizona, and one each from Ohio and Illinois, according to the commission.


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Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen says he’s voting for Trump

Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen from New Jersey (Record photo-Tariq Zehawi) 
Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen said Tuesday that Republican nominee Donald Trump is fit to be president, and Frelinghuysen plans to vote for him because he promised this summer to support the party’s nominee.

Herb Jackson, Washington Correspondent for The Record writes:


“While I’m offended by a lot of things he said and continues to say, I think he would be a strong leader, especially in the areas that I work in, in national defense,” Frelinghuysen told the editorial board of The Record.

The endorsement of one Republican by another would normally not raise eyebrows, but Frelinghuysen’s expression of support comes as others in his party, including Rep. Frank LoBiondo in Atlantic County, broke with the presidential nominee after the disclosure of a recording in which Trump boasted about inappropriately touching and kissing women.

Frelinghuysen, 70, is an 11-term Republican from Harding who represents the 11th Congressional District, covering parts of Passaic, Morris, Essex and Sussex counties. He is chairman of the House subcommittee that writes the Pentagon’s budget and told the editorial board that the nation’s standing around the world slipped during President Obama’s tenure because allies came to doubt whether the United States would do what it said it would.

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Like Trump, he criticized Obama’s withdrawal of troops from Iraq, saying it created the opening that allowed the Islamic State group to gain power. He agreed with Trump that the U.S. military “is in a horrible condition” because of Obama’s “ambivalent” attitude over the past eight years.

“I’ve traveled the Middle East, and the people that I talk with, in Egypt, in Jordan, they see the United States leaning back and creating a vacuum not unlike the vacuum we saw in Iraq that allowed people to lean in there, and now we have to go back and spend American lives, which we’re doing each and every day, trying to take back areas that were captured,” Frelinghuysen said.

A leading candidate to be chairman of the full House Appropriations Committee next year, he said if he gets that post, he will both support and keep in check the next president, whether it’s Trump or Democrat Hillary Clinton.

“This is nothing to do with party. This is about our nation and this is why, this damn election, we’ve got two of the most unbelievable people running here. But I want you to know I’m going to have — whoever wins — their back, and we’re going to make sure we have checks and balances,” he said.


Rival faults stance

Joseph Wenzel, a Democratic attorney from Clifton who is running against Frelinghuysen this year, said in a phone interview that the incumbent can’t have it both ways.

“Either he supports the nominee wholeheartedly, which means he buys into Trump’s racism and misogyny and sexism, or he doesn’t,” Wenzel said. He said it was “laughable” to say Trump should be president because of his position on military issues.

“This is the guy who would love to use nuclear weapons, and has zero experience on the international stage,” Wenzel said. “That disturbs me and should disturb the people of the district.”

Read the full story here

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Bridgegate: Defense rests; summations tomorrow

Bridgegate defendant Bridget Anne Kelly – WNYC
After six weeks of testimony, dozens of witnesses and declarations of innocence from the two former Christie administration insiders now on trial, the defense in the Bridgegate scandal has rested.
Ted Sherman and Matt Arco report for NJ.com:
Summations are scheduled to begin on Thursday and the jury is expected to begin their deliberations on Monday.
Seven women and five men will decide the fate of Bridget Anne Kelly, the former deputy chief of staff to Gov. Chris Christie, and Bill Baroni, the one-time deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The two are charged in a nine-count indictment with conspiracy and fraud in connection with a scheme of political retaliation targeting the mayor of Fort Lee over his refusal to endorse the governor for re-election.
Prosecutors say the two participated in a bizarre plan to close down several local access toll lanes at the George Washington Bridge, causing massive gridlock in Fort Lee over four days in September 2013 as a way to punish the Fort Lee mayor for not endorsing the governor for re-election.

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In a final day of testimony, federal prosecutors continued to methodically chip away at Kelly in her fourth day on the stand, focusing on the inconsistencies with what seven other witnesses told the jury.
“All of them testified falsely?” assistant U.S. attorney Vikas Khanna asked Kelly Wednesday morning.
“All of them have a different recollection,” she responded “Their livelihoods all depend on Chris Christie.”
Those witnesses included Deborah Gramiccioni, former head of the governor’s Authorities Unit ; Matt Mowers, Chris Stark and Christine Renna, all former staffers under Kelly when she was in charge of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs; Jeanne Ashmore, director of the governor’s Office of Constituent Relations; Michael Drewniak, the governor’s former press spokesman, and David Wildstein, the government’s key witness in the case and the admitted mastermind of the lane closure plot.
Related news coverage:

Bridgegate lawyers highlight conflicts in Christie aides The defense in the George Washington Bridge lane closure trial has rested and witness testimony concluded Wednesday, but not before the U.S. attorney’s office raised further questions about the trustworthiness of former Christie aide Bridget A. Kelly Politico
>Prosecutor grills Kelly on deleted emails Trenton Bureau 
>Christie not expected to testify in Bridgegate NJ.com  
>Christie Says He Never Knew, Others Say He Did (ABC)
>Testimony ends in lies, tears, and no certainty of justice (Bob Braun)


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Cuomo urged to sign film bill for Catskills, Hudson Valley

The Catskill Mountainkeeper is calling on its members
to urge NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo to sign a bill extending the state’s  Film Production Tax Credit to the Catskills and Hudson Valley.


In a letter to the organizations members and supporters, Mountainkeeper Executive Director Ramsay Adams explains:


…earlier this year the New York State Assembly voted to extend the Empire State Film Production Tax Credit Program to the Catskills and Hudson Valley. This move will encourage film companies to take advantage of our region’s extraordinary natural beauty, historic architecture, and creative talent, bringing critical new dollars into our economy and creating jobs and supporting local businesses of all kinds.
This legislation is about fairness. While other counties in upstate New York can benefit from the current credit, the Catskills and Hudson Valley cannot, and we believe that the hamlets in Sullivan, Ulster, and Orange Counties deserve equal access to this credit. 
Mountainkeeper believes that a healthy economy is a diverse economy that embraces, rather than exploits, our natural resources; and we believe increased film production here will do just that.

Mountainkeeper and activist supporters like you have been strong and persistent advocates for this bill from the very start. Earlier this year, Mountainkeeper submitted a letter to the Governor requesting the Tax Credit expansion signed by over 30 entertainment professionals including Chevy Chase, Natalie Merchant, Debra Winger, Mary-Stuart Masterson, Mark Ruffalo, Jon Bowermaster, and Aidan Quinn. Following the Assembly’s vote to extend the credit to the Catskills and Hudson Valley, Mountainkeeper and our allies have been working to build broad support for it in anticipation of this moment.

Now that the bill is with the Governor, it’s time for a final big push to make sure he signs it into law. We have a narrow window of opportunity as he has until November 4th to act on the bill, so we urge you to take a moment and call Governor Cuomo at 518-474-8390. You can leave a message by pressing 2 and asking the Governor to approve the expansion of the Empire State Film Production Tax Credit. 

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