Bridgegate: Who knew what. when inside Christie’s circle?


Michael Drewniak, former Press Secretary to NJ Gov. Chris Christie, testifies in the Bridgegate trial and his answers to questions by defendant Bridget Anne Kelly‘s defense attorney begin to paint a picture of “willful blindness” among members of the governor’s top echelon, NJTV News correspondent Michael Aron reports.   


In other Bridgegate trial coverage, Asbury Park Press reporter Dustin Racioppi writes:


An outgoing commissioner of the Port Authority [Scott Rechler] said he viewed David Wildstein, the government’s main witness in the George Washington Bridge lane-closure trial, as a political operative who was a “cancer” to the agency during his time there.


David Samson, the board’s former chairman and a close ally to Gov. Chris Christie, was seen as someone who regularly sought to undermine the power of the New York side of the agency in an attempt to gain leverage for New Jersey, the commissioner testified Thursday.


And those two, along with former deputy executive director Bill Baroni, were seen as a “team” inhibiting efforts to depoliticize the bistate agency, he said.


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NJ Meadowlands moving to stop methane bird burns

Kestrel with singed tail feathers – Jill Homcy photo


After years of complaints by environmental advocates, a state agency indicated Wednesday that it is taking steps to prevent raptors and other birds from getting singed wings and tails as they fly through a nearly invisible flame that burns off methane at a landfill in the Meadowlands.

James M. O’Neill reports for
The Record:


The agency responsible for the landfill met with federal wildlife officials Wednesday and said it will start clearing vegetation around the area to remove attractive areas for birds to perch around the flame.

The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority plans to have landscapers start the work by the end of this week. The agency, which oversees the Kingsland Landfill in Lyndhurst, has retained a consultant to inspect the flare and see whether a “spiky crown” could be installed on top of the flame to keep birds away, or whether any other alterations could be made to ensure that the flare is safer for birds.

“They’ve come a long way from where they were just a few weeks ago. It’s certainly a positive development,” said Don Torino, president of the Bergen County Audubon Society, which has complained to the agency for two years about the problem. “I’m cautiously optimistic.”

Torino said, however, that none of the proposed changes address the issue of birds flying through the flame.

Torino and other birders have seen a number of species with singed wing and tail feathers, including rough-legged hawks, osprey and American kestrels, a small hawk with declining populations that is considered threatened in New Jersey. One raptor was found hiding in a drainage pipe near the landfill, unable to fly, Torino said.

He said birders have also seen smaller birds, including starlings, flying through the nearly invisible flame. “They get torched, hit the ground and run into the vegetation,” he said. “There are probably a lot more birds being injured than we can even tell.”

In an email, Christine Sanz, the sports authority’s senior vice president, told authority President Wayne Hasenbalg that the agency met with two special agents from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the landfill Wednesday and came up with a list of initial steps.

The service will try to find an extra camera to watch the flare and see just how many birds are being affected. The federal agency will also contact the Public Service Electric and Gas Co. to discuss ways to make the utility’s poles and other infrastructure in the area less appealing as spots for birds to perch.

“We are making good progress and moving as quickly as we can to address the issues you have raised,” Hasenbalg told Torino in an email Wednesday.

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Energy and environment bills – Oct 20 Trenton voting lists

New Jersey Assembly Chamber in Trenton


The following environment and energy bills are scheduled for floor votes in the New Jersey Assembly and Senate on Thursday, October 20, 2016:


ASSEMBLY VOTING SESSION
10/20/16  1:00 PM
A-1628  Rodriguez-Gregg, M. (R-8); Holley, J.C.
(D-20)
Codifies DEP’s New Jersey Recycling Awards Program to
annually recognize outstanding recycling achievements.
      
A-2584  Gusciora, R. (D-15); Giblin, T.P. (D-34)
Prohibits purchase of certain items by scrap metal
businesses.
      
A-3914  Mazzeo, V. (D-2)
Allows existing rural development areas zoned for
industrial use under Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan to be included as
eligible areas under certain business incentive programs.
Related Bill: S-2338
      
ACR-25  Singleton, T. (D-7); Gusciora, R. (D-15);
Benson, D.R. (D-14); Zwicker, A. (D-16); Danielsen, J. (D-17)
Determines that Fish and Game Council’s adopted rule to
allow use of enclosed foothold traps is inconsistent with plain language and
legislative intent of 1984 law banning animal traps of steel-jaw leg-hold type.
Related Bill: SCR-11
      
______________________________________________________________________________ 
SENATE VOTING SESSION
10/20/16  2:00 PM
A-793  Andrzejczak, B. (D-1); Land, R.B. (D-1);
Taliaferro, A.J. (D-3)
Requires Dept. of Agriculture and DEP to work with US
Army Corps of Engineers to establish joint permit application process for
aquaculture projects.
Related Bill: S-316      
AJR-24  Andrzejczak, B. (D-1); Houghtaling, E. (D-11)
Declares aquaculture an important State economic driver
and urges State to include aquaculture industry in its economic development
plans.
Related Bill: SJR-36
      
S-227  Holzapfel, J.W. (R-10)
Requires DOT, NJTA, and SJTA to use only native
vegetation for landscaping, land management, reforestation, or habitat
restoration.
Related Bill: A-963
     
S-316  Van Drew, J. (D-1); Connors, C.J. (R-9)
Requires Dept. of Agriculture and DEP to work with US
Army Corps of Engineers to establish joint permit application process for
aquaculture projects.
Related Bill: A-793
     

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New Jersey moving to turn food waste into energy

Making smart use of biomass could be a win-win: It can be used a source of power and it prevents methane from being released into the atmosphere

Tom Johnson writes today in NJ Spotlight:

The food waste from a local supermarket, restaurant, or catering hall could end up being the fuel that serves a source of renewable energy for New Jersey.
That’s the goal of a bill moving through the Legislature, which would require large generators of garbage to separate and recycle food waste with the aim of converting it to energy.
The bill (S-771), approved by the Senate Environment and Energy Committee last week, would encourage composting and building more food-waste-to-energy facilities in the state.
Food waste is a big source of trash in the United States, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, with Americans throwing away more than 36 million tons in 2012. Less than 5 percent of that was recycled.

_______________________________________________

While the focus of this story is the potential to turn food waste into energy, a second benefit is the conversion of table scraps into rich compost material for gardening, farming and landscaping — Editor
_______________________________________________


Most of the rest ends up in garbage dumps, where it rots and releases methane into the atmosphere, a potent greenhouse gas contributing to global climate change.

The proposed bill is similar to laws that have been adopted in Connecticut and Massachusetts, as well as a number of large cities, including New York, which requires food scraps to be separated by sizable generators of waste, like hospitals, prisons, and supermarkets.
“This is an intelligent alternative to improve our environment,’’ said Sen. Bob Smith (D-Middlesex), the sponsor of the bill. “We have a problem with waste in this country, and recycling solid waste is a viable system that will produce energy to provide to our homes, schools and businesses.’’
According to the EPA, if half of food waste could be properly recycled and used as a fuel for energy, enough electricity would be generated to power 2.5 million homes for a year.
A study by Rutgers University’s Agricultural Experimental Station last year suggested that New Jersey was not utilizing the potential energy from biomass — organic materials like plants and waste that could be used to produce electricity or propel vehicles.
Beyond just curbing greenhouse-gas emissions, biomass, largely underutilized, could reduce dependence on fossil fuels and improve air quality, according to the study. The state spent about $3 million last year trying to promote biomass energy.
“This is common sense and it works to resolve multiple problems, from generation of energy so we can work to become more energy efficient to addressing our landfill issues, as well as combatting global warming,’’ Smith said.
The legislation would affect large food-waste generators located within 25 miles of an authorized recycling facility. The generators would be required to separate the food waste if they generated a volume of more than 104 tons per year.

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Bridgegate: No doubt about it, somebody’s lying

Bill Baroni, left, arrives at the Federal Courthouse for a hearing, today.  AP Photo/Mel Evans

We’ve already heard David Wildstein, the man that Gov. Christie put on the Port Authority to serve as his ‘enforcer,’ testify that he and Bill Baroni, another Christie appointee, spoke with the governor about the political-retribution, lane closing while it was happening.

In federal court today, Baroni told a different story.

Ryan Hutchins of Politico reports:
Bill Baroni, one of two defendants on trial over a scheme to close access lanes to the George Washington Bridge, took the witness stand in federal court on Monday, painting himself as a marginalized leader who was led to believe by his subordinate that that the closure of the access lanes was part of a traffic study. Baroni, who served as Gov. Chris Christie’s top appointee at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said he thought David Wildstein — the admitted mastermind of the scheme — was telling him the truth at the time of the lane closures in September 2013.
 The former Republican state senator, in direct contradiction of Wildstein’s testimony in the same case, said the two had a discussion with Christie at the Sept. 11 memorial that made no mention of Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich or the traffic problems that were occurring in the town as a result of the lane closures.
 While Wildstein had testified under oath that Baroni “bragged” to the governor that Sokolich was not getting his calls returned, Baroni said no such conversation ever took place. In reality, he said, the governor was told by Wildstein about an ongoing traffic study that could help improve traffic at the bridge and let Christie swoop in as a hero to motorists.

“David Wildstein discussed with the governor the traffic study that was going on at the bridge in order to see if he would be able to move mainline traffic faster into the toll booths, so Gov. Christie could announce he was able to fix the traffic problem at the George Washington Bridge,” Baroni testified, saying he was part of the conversation for three or four minutes.
 Baroni is charged alongside Bridget Anne Kelly, Christie’s former deputy chief of staff. They were indicted last May on charges of conspiracy, fraud and civil rights violations. They are accused of closing local access lanes to the bridge — the world’s busiest — to punish the Democratic mayor for not endorsing Christie’s re-election bid. Read the full Politico story here

The question now is which version of the governor’s role will Bridget Anne Kelly support when she takes the stand.

Kelly Heyboer of the Star Ledger writes:

The hint came in the midst of a routine cross examination of a government witness in the Bridgegate trial.

Michael Critchley, the prominent defense attorney, was grilling one of Gov. Chris Christie’s senior aides on the stand in the Newark courtroom on Tuesday about the 2013 lane closures at the George Washington Bridge. “Did you know that Bridget Kelly and the governor had discussions about the governor’s knowledge of the lane closures before they occurred?” Critchley asked Deborah Gramiccioni, Christie’s former deputy chief of staff.
“Did you know that Bridget Kelly and the governor had discussions about the lane closures during the occurrence of the lane closures?” the attorney pressed.
Gramiccioni answered no to both questions and Critchley quickly moved on to other topics.
But the cryptic questions remained. Was Critchley hinting that his client, Kelly, would testify she spoke to the governor about the lane closures while they were happening? And would she say she mentioned the political retribution plot?


This trial is better than Law and Order because you don’t need to wait a week for the next shoe to drop. What are we in for next? What will Kelly say? Who’s telling the truth? Tell us what you think by clicking the tiny ‘comments’ line below.
 
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Beer, bears and Jersey Fresh in committee in Trenton

The New Jersey Senate’s Economic Growth Committee meets this morning at 10:30 a.m. in Committee Room 1, 1st Floor, State House Annex in Trenton, NJ

Among the bills scheduled for consideration are these:

S-1334  Kean, T.H. (R-21); Diegnan, P.J. (D-18)
Permits certain breweries to sell beer at community farm
markets.
Related Bill: A-1949  
S-2454  Lesniak, R.J. (D-20); Cruz-Perez, N. (D-5)
Provides for confiscation and forfeiture of animals
involved in animal cruelty violations, and for cost of their care while being
held.
     
S-2457  Van Drew, J. (D-1)
Enables collection of voluntary contributions for
Jersey Fresh Program through gross income tax returns.
Related Bill: A-3999     
      
S-2702  Lesniak, R.J. (D-20)
Prohibits hunting and establishes non-lethal control
program for black bear for five years; prohibits certain actions that result in
feeding of bears and requires use of bear-resistant containers; dumpsters, and
food boxes in bear habitat.

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