Whitewater investigator Michael Chertoff backs Clinton

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, center, accompanied by former National Counterterrorism Center Director Matt Olson, right, and former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, left, attends a National Security working session in New York Sept. 9, 2016. (Photo: Andrew Harnik, AP)Add caption

Eliza Collins reports for USA TODAY:

Michael Chertoff, once the lead Republican counsel on the Senate committee investigating the Clintons’ Whitewater land deal, is now officially backing Hillary Clinton for president.

Chertoff, who went on to become the secretary of Homeland Security under George W. Bush, told Bloomberg View over the weekend that he made the decision because of the importance of national security.

“I realized we spent a huge amount of time in the ’90s on issues that were much less important than what was brewing in terms of terrorism,” he said.

Chertoff also said that while the Clintons have made some mistakes they dwarf in comparison to the need for national security.

“People can go back decades and perhaps criticize some of the judgments that were made [in the 90s],” Chertoff said. “That is very, very insignificant compared to the fundamental issue of how to protect the country.”

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Chertoff was born in Elizabeth, NJ and served as U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey from 1990 to 1994 – Editor_____________________________________
Whitewater was a probe into a land deal the Clintons were involved in shortly before Bill Clinton was elected governor of Arkansas. The investigation didn’t turn up anything, but it spawned other investigations into the Clintons that wound up uncovering Bill’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, leading to his impeachment by the House.

In his interview over the weekend, Chertoff addressed Clinton’s use of a private server specifically, telling Bloomberg that it was a mistake, but “she did not intentionally endanger national security.”

Chertoff previously signed a letter warning of the consequences of Trump presidency to national security but his decision to publicly back Clinton came after last week’s debate.

“Trump’s sense of loyalties are misplaced,” he said. He added that the way Trump has handled the situation with former Miss Universe Alicia Machado — he has defended calling her “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping” and went on a Twitter tirade in the wee hours of the morning last week — brings up concerns of impulse control.

“Not only did he seem at the debate to lose his temper, but to get up at 3:30 a.m. and reach for your smartphone is to me a hysterical reaction. If you’re president, the button you reach for is not the Twitter button; it’s the nuclear button,” he said.

Earlier this month Clinton met with Chertoff and a group of other bipartisan national security officials.

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Trump tax story: How NYT got it; Chris, Rudy play defense

The BIG weekend story is Donald Trump’s 1995 tax records that reportedly show a loss so massive from his failed casino, airline and hotel businesses that it would have permitted him to make no tax payments for years. Here’s the fascinating story from New York Times reporter Susanne Craig on how her newspaper got hold of the tax information and how they checked it out:

The Time I Found Donald Trump’s Tax Records in My Mailbox

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a top adviser to Mr. Trump,
and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani shared the unenviable task of explaining on the Sunday morning talk shows how the Times story was ‘actually a good story’ for Trump.

Yes, Mr. Christie actually said that. Roll tape:

Below is Mr. Giuliani’s spin on the tax story:

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Forget ISIS, here’s the immediate threat to NJ residents

In an era when politicians are out to promote themselves by scaring you about terrorism or illegal immigrants or street crime, there is a far more immediate–and still unaddressed–threat to your well being.

It’s far easier to fix your attention on the shadowy figure who may some day cause harm with a bomb or a gun than to get you to demand that your government deal with a problem that has every single New Jersey resident today on the hook for $15,000 each.

Underfunded public pensions. Good grief, how boring. Turn on an NFL game or reality show. Don’t talk to me about numbers. Somebody eventually will figure it out.

Hey, stupid, wake up. You’d better pay attention unless:

you like your already outrageous property taxes to keep climbing
you want to work a good part of the year just to pay for the pensions of government workers who have no intention of settling for less–and expect their unions to deliver more
your financial plan for the future hinges on getting out of Dodge and moving to Delaware or the Carolinas
you hope you can find a buyer for your home who is even more out of touch than you

Do yourself a favor. During the next commercial break, take a look at the op-ed (and video) in today’s Star-Ledger.

N.J. residents owe $15K per person in pension debt. Compromise is the only fix

You really need to start thinking about this and demanding that state leaders start dealing with it.

It won’t be easy for you–or for them–but what’s the alternative?

We can’t send this problem back to Mexico or give the police more military firepower to squelch it.

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Light rail getting back on track for NJ’s Bergen County?

Elected leaders in eastern Bergen County on Saturday cheered the news that the long-delayed extension of light rail service into Bergen may finally happen, thanks to the unexpected deal in Trenton to raise the gasoline tax by 23 cents a gallon to replenish the state’s Transportation Trust Fund.

The Record‘s Christopher Maag reports:

“It is a big deal, and it’s a great step forward,” state Sen. Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck, said of the plans, which would offer many of her constituents a direct rail ride to the PATH train lines that run to Manhattan.

“I’m very excited,” Englewood Mayor Frank Huttle said.

When complete, the line will allow light rail trains to travel
from Hoboken northbound, past the current terminus at Tonnelle Avenue in North Bergen, and to Ridgefield, Palisades Park and Leonia. It will have three stops in Englewood, including at Route 4 and downtown, and terminate at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center.

The final legislation incorporating the trust fund deal — which softens the blow of the gas tax bump with limited relief in other areas, like the sales and estate taxes — may come up for a vote in the state Legislature as early as Wednesday, said state Sen. Paul Sarlo, D-Wood-Ridge. He was one of the original co-authors of a transportation funding plan introduced in June, aspects of which are included in the current proposal.

The package, however, includes no language specifically dedicating any of the new gas tax revenue to the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail extension, Sarlo said, or to a sister project to extend the River Line light rail along the Delaware River in South Jersey.

Instead, Sarlo said, the deal to fund the two light rail systems at opposite ends of the state is an informal one among Christie, Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, D-Secaucus, Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester.

“The Legislature has the power to appropriate money, and it’s up to the executive branch to decide how that money is spent,” Sarlo said. “There is an understanding between all stakeholders, North and South Jersey and the governor’s office, that when the plan is developed, those two projects will be funded.”

Even if the Legislature passes the funding measure and the governor signs it, construction on the light rail line will not start soon.

During the summer, officials with NJ Transit were working to complete a preliminary study of the project’s environmental effects, as required by federal law. That study was to have been completed in October, said Huttle.

Then the Transportation Trust Fund ran out of money, and Christie issued an executive order stopping most construction and planning projects paid for by the fund, including the light rail effort.

Now it’s unknown when the study will be done, Huttle said.

Whenever it’s finished, NJ Transit must wait 60 days to receive public comment, hold a public hearing, complete a final environmental review, and then create an engineering plan, all before construction can actually start, Huttle said.

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Two ex-governors weigh in on protecting NJ water supply

Former NJ governors Tom Kean, Sr. and Jim Florio

Former New Jersey Governors Tom Kean and Jim Florio
write, in a NJ Spotlight, op-ed:

Clean, plentiful drinking water is critical for New Jersey’s families, businesses, and the future health and well-being of our state. In addition to the challenges that water-supply regulators and utilities have faced in the past, a new two-volume report released by the New Jersey Climate Adaptation Alliance brings attention to the challenges a changing climate poses to our drinking-water supplies.

The reports also offer insights on strategies that New Jersey can adopt to increase the resilience of our water supplies and the systems that deliver water to our residents.

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New Jersey slips three spots in national energy efficiency

While many states are making strides to reduce energy use, New Jersey continues to lag behind others in using energy more efficiently, according to a new national analysis.

Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:

New Jersey fell to 24th in the nation in energy efficiency, slipping three spots, according to a scorecard compiled by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy with the support of the U.S. Department of Energy. Less than a decade ago, the state was ranked seventh in terms of energy efficiency.

Clean-energy advocates often cite the annual study as justification behind a push for more aggressive policies and investments that would allow businesses and consumers to use energy more efficiently — a win-win proposition that would cut energy bills and reduce pollution.

The factors causing the state to lose ground are all too familiar to those who want the state to put a higher priority on energy efficiency. The analysis cited diversion of funds to promote energy savings; lack of a mandatory target to reduce energy use; and an existing utility business model that does not encourage investment in energy efficiency.

“Sadly, this is a broken record,’’ lamented Doug O’Malley, director of Environment New Jersey. “The road to becoming more energy efficient is obvious: stop raiding clean-energy funds and adopt an energy efficiency portfolio standard.’’

But the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities questioned the assumptions made in the analysis and defended its efforts in promoting energy efficiency.

In a statement, the agency said the state has a decade-and-a-half history of advancing energy efficiency, having invested approximately $2.58 billion over that time — a fact the council gives no weight. Half the state’s investment in energy efficiency has been during the Christie administration.

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