Assad's Loyalists Blame Houla Massacre On Rebels

Last week, more than 100 people were murdered in Houla. It's been reported that artillery was fired and subsequently roving militias came through to finish the job - executing dozens at close range with knives and small arms fire.

Is it any surprise that Bashar al-Assad's loyalists are claiming that the massacre was the result of rebel forces - not the government. The Assad-backed "

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If He Can't Tax It, Bloomberg Hopes To Ban Big Gulp-Sized Soda Sales

Mayor Mike Bloomberg continues his nanny-state ways. His latest proposal is to ban sales of super-sized sugary beverages:The man behind calorie counts is set to announce a new public health initiative to battle obesity, taking aim at super-sized sugary drinks.

In other words, it may soon be time to say goodbye to those Big Gulps, those Slurpees or even Venti at Starbucks, CBS 2’s Derricke

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Mitt Romney Takes Idiocy To New Level

At a campaign rally in Las Vegas yesterday, presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney proposed a constitutional amendment that would make anyone who does not have a business background as ineligible for the White House as if they had been born in Kenya.“I was speaking with one of these business owners who owns a couple of restaurants in town,” Romney said. “And he said ‘You know I’d like to change

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NJ Transit Customer Survey Results Show Modest Improvement

NJ Transit released its latest customer survey results for 3Q 2012, and it shows significant improvement, with the bulk coming from rail commuters. Rail commuters have been among the most likely to score the agency poorly, particularly during disruptions.

Part of the reason that NJ Transit scores in the latest quarter are improved is that there were fewer major rail disruptions around the time

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Syrian Conflict Enters New Deadly Phase

The cease fire that UN Envoy Kofi Annan didn't amount to much and diplomats had been trying to paper over its failures for the past couple of weeks even as Syria's thug in charge Bashar al Assad's forces continue attacking rebel forces throughout the country.

All claims to suggest that the ceasefire exists should be repudiated after this weekend's deadly attacks in Houla. Assad's forces shelled

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Memorial Day Weekend 2012

While so many Americans are busy enjoying the weather, grilling and barbequing or watching major sporting events, we should remember what Memorial Day is all about.

All gave some. Some gave all.

Remember those who fought in defense of the nation and those who made the supreme sacrifice. Words cannot fully explain what these men and women have left behind - both in terms of the loss to their

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An Admission of Guilt, But Whither The Evidence?

Pedro Hernandez apparently confessed yesterday to murdering Etan Patz and then disposing of his body in the trash 33 years ago today. He was transferred to Bellvue Hospital in NYC and is under suicide watch.It was unclear where Mr. Hernandez was held until he was moved to the hospital, and the official could not say whether he was transferred for any formal evaluation. Mr. Hernandez has been

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New Jersey Bipartisan Budget Idiocy Abounds

NJ politics and you - screwed up together. The OLS issues a budget notice finding that the state will end with a deficit of more than $600 million, and yet Gov. Christie (a Republican) and State Senate President Stephen Sweeney (Democrat) are pushing ahead with a compromise tax cut plan that the two hashed out that will cost even more money and requires one-shot borrowing from the state's nearly

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Egyptian Runoff Election Will Pit Ancien Regime Against Islamists

For most Egyptians, this will be a contest between the old guard versus the Islamists and they will have to choose the lesser of two evils. Hosni Mubarak's former prime minister versus a candidate for a party banned by Mubarak for decades.It was clear as early as Thursday night that a plurality of votes went to Mohamed Morsi, the American-educated engineer nominated by the Brotherhood, the

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Gov. Christie Wont Scale Back Tax Cuts Even As Deficit Mounts

The New Jersey budget is required to be balanced pursuant to the State Constitution. How it gets to that point is up to the Governor and the legislature.

Gov. Chris Christie is determined to make good on his plan to cut income taxes, even though the latest budget projections are showing a much larger deficit than anyone had expected. It's now up to $668 million, which would normally call for a

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Big Break In Etan Patz Case?

It looks like there's been a huge break in the Etan Patz case this morning as all the local media outlets are reporting that the NYPD has someone in custody who has implicated himself in the disappearance. It's not one of the two individuals (including convicted child molestor Jose Ramos) previously suspected in the disappearance of Patz from a SoHo street more than 30 years ago. The break comes

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Turkey Readies Indictments of Israelis Over Gaza Flotilla

Turkey continues pressing ahead with a potential indictment of top Israeli military leaders over the Gaza flotilla that had nothing to do with humanitarian aid and everything to do with seeking a violent confrontation with Israel.

Turkish newspapers are noting that Ankara's prosecutor is preparing a 144-page document that accuses top Israeli officers, including former army chief Gabi Ashkenazi,

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Egyptians Go To Polls To Elect New President

It's a historic day in Egypt. Today is the first day of a two-day election to determine the next president of Egypt and for the first time, it doesn't involve Hosni Mubarak and there are multiple candidates with a chance of winning. The fact that polling is all but nonexistent, no one really knows who will come out on top:In the run-up to the ballot, there have been no reliable opinion surveys,

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The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 160

Westfield Properties envisions opening up its retail center in 2015 after signing new agreements with the Port Authority.After years of negotiation, Westfield (WDC.AX) last week signed a deal with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for a $1.25 billion joint venture to lease the retail space at the World Trade Center.

Westfield, one of the world's biggest mall owners, said the first

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Port Authority Dumps Security Firm Over ID Snafu

Last week, it came to light that a security supervisor at Newark Liberty Airport turned out to be an illegal alien who used an identification stolen from a man who nearly two decades ago. No one - not the security firm, not the Port Authority, not the TSA - knew that this had occurred until a whistleblower came forward and tipped off the Port Authority inspector general's office.

Now, we're

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MTA East Side Access Schedule Delayed Again; Symptom of Larger Problems

While the MTA seems to be making incremental progress on carrying out routine maintenance using an expanded Fastrack program that shuts down entire segments of the subway system overnight during the week, its capital program remains in shambles.

In particular, the East Side Access program's cost has ballooned to $8.2 billion and the completion has been pushed back to 2019.The LIRR extension to

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Even Darth Vader's Got To Pay For Parking In NYC

No Jedi mind tricks here; Darth Vader tried to get a traffic cop to cut him some slack on a parking ticket claiming that he paid and put the receipt in his vehicle windshield, but the officer just didn't buy it.

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Judgment Day in Rutgers Spycam Case For Dharun Ravi

Dharun Ravi will find out today just how long he will spend in prison for his complicity in videotaping his Rutgers University roommate Tyler Clementi, who committed suicide shortly after Ravi posted the video online showing Clementi getting intimate with another man.

Ravi was found guilty of bias-intimidation and invasion-of-privacy against Clementi, but curiously some gay rights groups and

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How The Hunger Games Should Have Ended

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NYC Cuts New Deal To Redevelop Willets Point With Mets Owners

New York City has cut a new deal to redevelop Willets Point with the Mets ownership group. Willets Point has long been eyed for redevelopment. It's a neighborhood that is largely off the grid - it lacks sewer hookups and is a warren of junkyards and repair shops in the shadow of the gleaming new CitiField. Since construction got underway to build the stadium a few years back, Mayor Bloomberg had

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Despite Bloomberg Saying Nothing Wrong With Stop and Frisk; NYPD Commissioner Kelly Institutes Reforms

It's curious how Mayor Mike Bloomberg can defend stop and frisk as a policy that works on the same day that NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly announces reforms of the program to address community concerns. In a letter sent earlier today to Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Kelly said top-ranking officials in each police precinct will now be required to audit reports of street stops by officers. This is

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Sources Reporting Pedro Espada Legal Fees Being Paid By Charity He Fleeced

This is Pedro Espada we're talking about here. Nothing would be beyond him. After all, he's claimed that the FBI and law enforcement were using black magic to secure convictions against him and his son (the jury did find him guilty on four charges that could send him away for up to 40 years, but mistrials were declared on the remaining counts against him and his son).

Sources are indicating that

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Despite Higher Stop and Frisk Figures, NYPD Ticket Writing Way Down

New York City is busy dealing with the stop and frisk controversy and suits filed against the policy, but a curious statistic was released on another aspect of policing in New York City.

The NYPD is on pace to write more than a quarter million fewer tickets than it did last year, likely as a result of a ticket-fixing scandal last year that led to beat cops not issuing as many tickets as they

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Are We Overstating the Problems At JP Morgan Chase?

When you take the topline figure that JP Morgan Chase lost $2 billion on a bad hedge position that presented undue risk to the bank, that looks like tremendously bad news. Even the Justice Department is opening investigations into the circumstances behind the loss. The investigation centers on whether the bank was hedging risk or seeking to profit from risky trades (and semantics is what this is

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Cory Booker and Chris Christie Show Off Their Comedy Chops

Every once in a while it's nice to see politicians not taking themselves too seriously and to have some fun with each other. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Newark Mayor Cory Booker put together this video as part of the NJ Press Association Dinner festivities. There's some sly references to Booker's heroic actions of saving neighbors from a fire and a few Seinfeld references as well.

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An Iris in Bloom

 Taken with my trusty Canon 60D with Tamron 28-300 XR Di VR zoom.

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Even NYPD Professionals Are Questioning The Scope of Stop and Frisk

The release of data showing just how frequently the NYPD is using Stop and Frisk as a police tactic to reduce crime is staggering with its implications and whether the program is no longer achieving its objectives. It's got top level police officials questioning whether the program has gone off the rails - for performance objectives sake - and ignoring the implications for civil rights and actual

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New Jersey Revenues Coming In $300 Million Below Projections

The New Jersey Department of Treasury announced that revenues were coming in about $300 million below projections, which isn't nearly as bad as the Office of Legislative Services estimates, but it still puts a crimp on Gov. Chris Christie's plans for tax relief. He’s also banking on a huge economic upswing during the budget year that begins on July 1, using that growth to support his “Jersey

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Airport Security Theater Takes Turn to the Absurd

For all the talk of improving security and eliminating all manner of holes in security around airplanes and airports, it seems that there was one huge gaping hole at one of the airports from which one of the 9/11 aircraft took off.

A security supervisor at Newark Liberty Airport was using the identification of a dead man for more than 17 years. Bimbo Olumuyia Oyelwole, a 54-year-old Nigerian

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Syrian Revolt Spills Into Lebanon Once Again

For the third consecutive day, fighting in Syria has spilled over into Lebanon, and the casualties continue to mount on both sides of the border:Firing assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, Lebanese gunmen clashed in street battles Monday as sectarian tensions linked to the 14-month-old uprising in Syria bled across the border for a third day.

At least five people have been killed and

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New Jersey Moving Ahead On Proposals To Revamp Drug Incarcerations

Governor Chris Christie had been calling for a revamping of the state's drug incarceration laws because the criminal justice system simply couldn't afford the costs associated with the incarceration of so many people. He proffered an alternative - drug courts combined with drug treatment in lieu of incarceration and it's something that the state Assembly has taken up.The Assembly's Judiciary

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Pedro Espada Found Guilty On Multiple Fraud and Theft Counts

After spending the better part of two weeks deliberating without a verdict and various reports indicating that there was a possibility of a hung jury, the jury came back with a verdict on four of the counts against ex-Democrat ex-State Senator Pedro Espada Jr.

The jury found him guilty of theft and fraud relating to charges incurred by Soundview Healthcare Network, a charitable health care

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New Jersey Budget Projects Will Hamper Gov. Christie's Chances To Keep Promised Tax Cuts

As I've been warning for quite some time, budget projections have been far too rosy and assuming growth when one should take a far more conservative outlook on the figures.

By assuming growth in excess of what one should reasonably expect, you set up the potential for budget deficits and that's precisely the situation that Gov. Chris Christie is facing in New Jersey. He offered up a more rosy

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The Syrian Civil War Grinds On Despite "Cease. Fire!"

The fighting in Syria rages on despite the fact that there's supposedly a ceasefire in place between rebel forces arrayed against Bashar al-Assad's security forces.

Bombings are increasingly common. A pair of bombings today killed at least 55 people and injured more than 400 others. The explosions struck at rush hour in the Al Qazaz neighborhood and tore through a crowded intersection near a

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Gay Marriage Has No Effect On The Institution of Marriage

War on marriage my ass.

Are people really that fearful that gay marriages will destroy society and life as we know it?

I know, it's a rhetorical question. It's not just fear, but centuries of religious dogma pushing back even though this country is predicated upon equal protection and equal rights.

The issue of gay marriage isn't only about the institution of marriage marriage. It's about a

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Honda May Have Dodged Bullet On Fuel Economy Lawsuits

Honda may have dodged a big bullet today when a circuit court judge reversed a small claims court ruling that found the company responsible for lying about its fuel economy on its hybrid vehicles. The plaintiff in that case had claimed that Honda misrepresented its fuel economy and won nearly $10,000. Superior Court Judge Dudley W. Gray II ruled Tuesday on Honda's appeal of a small-claims court

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President Obama Comes Out In Favor of Gay Marriage

President Obama has announced that he now supports gay marriage. That's a huge turnaround from his prior stance on the issue, and he does so at a time when the civil rights of gays and lesbians are under assault from social conservatives who think that they should be imposing their religious views on others.

I think he saw the reaction garnered from what VP Joe Biden and Sec. Arne Duncan said

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Phase One of NY Penn Station Upgrade Begins This Summer

It's been a long time coming, but the Moynihan train station construction project's first phase will be getting underway this summer. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced Tuesday the $270 million first phase of the project that includes expanded concourses and extra entryways on the western end of the station. The adjacent James Farley post office will also become a new

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MTA's East Side Access Project Faces New Delays

For those hoping that the MTA could get the East Side Access project on track, wonder no more. It will be seeing even more delays now that the construction has run into new troubles at the Sunnyside Yards. It now appears Long Island Rail Road trains won’t be stopping at Grand Central Terminal until 2019.

That’s the word Tuesday from Joseph Lhota, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation

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Foiled Underwear Bomb Plot Linked With UAV Airstrike in Yemen

Well, as I suspected yesterday, the foiled underwear bomb plot and the UAV raid that killed a major al Qaeda figure (and who was linked to the USS Cole bombing) were connected. "I was told by the White House that they are connected, that they are part of the same operation," Representative Peter King told CNN a day after news of the intercepted bomb that authorities said was intended to make its

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Israel's Netanyahu Forms Coalition Government With Rival Kadima

Israeli politics can make for strange bedfellows. The Knesset is made up of 120 parlimentarians, and to govern, one must be able to get a majority of Parliament. In the last election, Likud was given the opportunity to form a coalition government (in Israel's history, no single party has ever garnered sufficient seats to form a government on its own). It did so, but only barely.

The need to

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ACLU Blocks New Jersey TRU-ID Law From Implementation

New Jersey's Motor Vehicles Commission (MVC) was supposed to begin handling drivers license renewals and new issuances under the federal REAL-ID standard that was years in the making starting today. The New Jersey program was called TRU-ID, and required individuals to provide specific kinds of identification to prove that they are who they say they are. That included unexpired drivers licenses

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Tappan Zee Bridge Replacement Takes Hit When Federal Funding Dries Up

The Tappan Zee bridge needs replacement. That much is clear to pretty much everyone. The new span is expected to cost at least $5.2 billion. It would cost a whole lot more if it is built with heavy rail to connect the Metro North lines on either side of the Hudson River, so the fast-track plan put forth by Gov. Andrew Cuomo omitted that plan but would have the bridge built with the capacity to

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RIP Adam Yauch

My thoughts and prayers go out to Adam Yauch's friends and family. The name might not be familiar to everyone, but his band, The Beastie Boys, certainly is.

Yauch passed away from complications from salivary cancer at the age of 47. The group had just been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year, but Yauch wasn't able to attend due to his health:Adam Yauch, who performed under the

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Rutgers University Faces Bigger Problem Than Merger Talk

While New Jerseyeans are questioning the wisdom of Gov. Chris Christie's proposed merger of Rutgers University with Rowan University and reorganizing the state university and Rutgers trustees are opposed to the merger (with caveats), a far more important question needs to be asked of the university and its priorities.

Is the university truly dedicated to teaching the next generation of students

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No More Mo? Mariano Rivera Suffers Torn ACL And Career Is In Jeopardy

It's probably the last way that Mariano Rivera thought his career would end. Landing awkwardly during shagging fly balls during the pregame warmup routine.

His face told the tale. The pain in his knee and needing to be carted off for an MRI.

Rivera will need surgery, but the Yankees are now peering into the future of life without the greatest closer of all time backstopping their bullpen as

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Cut the Fat, Cut the Gas Consumption?

In the past few days, there have been a series of reports about the costs of obesity on the American economy. The study attempts to quantify how much obesity costs for health care, transportation, and other factors.Because obesity raises the risk of a host of medical conditions, from heart disease to chronic pain, the obese are absent from work more often than people of healthy weight. The most

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The US Army Releases Bin Laden Papers Online

The US has decided to release 17 declassified documents captured during the raid that killed Osama bin Laden last year.

The letters are posted on the Combatting Terrorism Center website of the US Army at West Point.

The accompanying report provides context, including how al Qaeda views itself and its allies, coreligionists, and relationships with countries such as Iran and Pakistan. For

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Despite Monitors, Assad's Forces Continue Bloodletting

Despite the fact that there's supposedly a UN brokered ceasefire in place, Bashar al-Assad's security forces continue murdering protesters and carrying out attacks against those opposed to the regime.

The latest incidents involve security forces attacking a university in Aleppo Syria and killing at least four students. Around 1,500 students had been protesting in student quarters next to Aleppo

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NYS Department of Transportation To Install Barriers On Bronx River Parkway

The New York State Department of Transportation has begun installing new concrete barriers along the stretch of the Bronx River Parkway where seven people were killed when their vehicle careened off the viaduct and crashed more than 60 feet to the ground. Two other segments along the Parkway will get similar treatment.The 2-foot, 8-inch concrete slabs will be placed on the righthand side of the

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May Day Protests/Marches Across New York City

While most of the action in New York City appears to be in the Midtown area thus far, Lower Manhattan, including Federal Hall, Wall Street, and Zuccotti Park are empty of protesters/marchers on this May Day.

That's likely to change this afternoon and evening as metal police barricades are everywhere - especially along Broadway and around Federal Hall.




The metal barricades are everywhere

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Obsolete and Dangerous Infrastructure Contributed To Deadly Bronx River Parkway Crash

Over the weekend there was a deadly accident on the Bronx River Parkway adjacent to the Bronx Zoo. Seven people were killed when their vehicle somehow managed to cross four lanes of traffic and over the side barrier and crashed more than 60 feet below into a storage yard at the zoo.

Local politicians are clamoring for action and wondering why the elevated section has high curbs and

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Al Qaeda, Down But Not Out A Year After Bin Laden's Death

Al Qaeda is hurting a year following the death of Osama bin Laden at the hands of a US special forces unit in Pakistan.

But it isn't done by a long shot.

Terrorists continue to try to plan attacks, and they are using all kinds of methods to spread word of their plans.

One such plan and communications methods was intercepted just days after bin Laden was killed. A 22-year-old Austrian named

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