Gov. Christie Must Fire NJ Transit Officials Over Gross Incompetence Before Hurricane Sandy

I am once again reiterating my call on New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to fire NJ Transit officials, starting with Executive Director Jim Weinstein.

Weinstein appeared before the State Legislature once again and admitted that the agency not only stored rail equipment in Kearny and Hoboken before Hurricane Sandy, but purposefully moved still more equipment into both low-lying areas before

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Massive Corruption Sweep Busts Politicians Trying To Rig Republican NYC Mayor's Race

Earlier this morning, law enforcement carried out  a massive corruption sweep in NY, with multiple arrests of local politicians.
State Sen. Malcolm Smith and city Councilman Dan Halloran were arrested this morning on charges they were plotting to rig this year’s mayoral election through fraud and bribes.

The pols allegedly formed an alliance built on cash payments and fraud to get Smith — one

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Why Corruption Persists

Yesterday, Trenton Mayor Tony Mack and six others were arrested in a corruption bust by federal prosecutors. Today comes word that one of those six was caught on a wiretap describing his actions as "good corruption."

Yes, you read that right.

They didn't think anything of engaging in criminal acts, and considered corruption to be part and parcel of their doing their work.Joseph “JoJo”

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Trenton NJ Mayor Tony Mack, 6 Others Arrested In Federal Corruption Probe

Trenton New Jersey Mayor Tony Mack and six others have been arrested in connection with an ongoing federal corruption probe. The Trenton Democrat has been under investigation for the past several months, and the FBI had previously issued search warrants on the mayor's office, personal residence, and several locations of relatives to Mack. Joseph "JoJo" Giorgianni, a top campaign contributor, and

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The Harassment Scandal That Threatens To Take Down NYS Democratic Leadership

Over the past couple of weeks, a growing scandal in the New York State Assembly has meant that Assemblyman Vito Lopez lost his chairmanship of the powerful Housing Committee over revelations that he harassed multiple women over a period of years. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver stripped Lopez of his chairmanship, but then it was revealed that Silver authorized the payment of a $100k settlement to

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Penn State University Priorities Askew

Penn State, which continues reeling from the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal, has decided that it will no longer play Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline at football games.

School officials say that the decision has come after a few years of deliberations about the use of the song and suggestive lyrics.On Monday, it was revealed that Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” — a Beaver Stadium staple — will not be

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Standard Chartered Agrees To $340 Million Fine From NYS Regulator

Federal and state regulations prohibit certain kinds of conduct by banks. That includes money laundering and dealing with Iran. Standard Chartered violated both ends of that - they not only engaged in money laundering deals with Iran, but lied to regulators and sought to cover up their activities.

Benjamin M. Lawsky, New York Superintendent of Financial Services, claimed that Standard Chartered

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FBI Investigation of Trenton Mayor Mack Continues

Last week, I noted that the FBI was carrying out searches of Trenton Mayor Tony Mack, a Democrat. Those searches included stops at his home, office, and his brother. At the time, the FBI wasn't saying what they were looking for.

Today, they've announced that they're looking into bribery, fraud, extortion and money laundering charges. Federal authorities also are investigating vendor contracts

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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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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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Friday Night News Dump: South Carolina Lt. Gov. Resigns In Disgrace Over Criminal Charges

It's the latest installment of the Friday Night News Dump. This is where bad news goes to lie under the radar. In this instance, we've got Republican, Lt. Gov. Ken Ard of South Carolina, resigning in disgrace over criminal charges of spending campaign funds on personal expenses and fabricating donations.

He entered guilty pleas shortly after resigning this afternoon. Apparently as part of a

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News Corp. Faces Expanding Scandal As More Reporters Arrested

News Corporation's The Sun faces a similar mess that sunk News of the World. In fact, the situation is even worse. Five more reporters were arrested for improper payments to police in a widening corruption and hacking scandal:Four senior journalists from The Sun newspaper have been balied after they were arrested in dawn raids today over allegations of inappropriate payments to police.

In

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News Corp. Settles With Victims Over Hacking Scandal

Jude Law, one of those who were victims of the hacking scandal, apparently settled with News Corporation for roughly $200,000:The actor Jude Law received the highest disclosed payout of £130,000 damages plus costs as payments totalling £640,000 were made in 15 cases where the amount of amounts were made public.

The former deputy prime minister, John Prescott, received £40,000, Labour MP

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