MORRISTOWN, NJ – Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie chastised President Donald J. Trump’s actions of late.  Christie said there needs to be fundamental changes made by the President and his team.

In an interview with ABC News on the “Powerhouse Roundtable”, Christie said the President is in big trouble.

“Well listen, he is losing,” Christie said. “If he doesn’t change course both in terms of the substance of what he’s discussing and his approach towards the American people, then he will lose.’

“The trend is going towards Joe Biden,” Christie said.

http://www.shorenewsnetwork.com/2020/06/16/former-governor-christie-endorses-former-obama-democrat-who-hired-monmouth-university-racist-star-of-viral-n-gger-video/

NEWARK, NJ – City officials say they know who did it, but it was not them…and they’re not telling who it was.  A second Christopher Columbus statue was removed overnight, this time the one that stood in front of Columbus Plaza on Bloomfield Avenue after 6 pm on Friday.

“This was done by Murphy, the city of Newark or both,” said Joe P. “That statue’s been there as long as I’ve been alive. What about my heritage?”

The statue stood for decades in front of St. Francis Xavier Church.

https://www.facebook.com/thefrontlinewithjoeandjoe/videos/2380796142225475/

HOLMDEL, NJ – There’s an effort afoot to remove the “blue lives matter” line that was recently painted in Holmdel.  Black Lives Matters protesters and anti-police protesters in New Jersey are planning a protest to force Holmdel Mayor Gregory Buontempo to remove the line. The group says the line was painted in response to black lives matter, not as a natural appreciation for Holmdel police.

“This is a racist symbol,” the group said on a shareable Google Docs flyer, “The Blue Lives Matter movement is more than just an attempt to undermine Black Lives Matter.”

“[We] demand the removal of the blue line representing “Blue Lives Matter” on Crawfords Corner Road between Holmdel High School and the Holmdel Municipal Court. Since this line quietly symbolizes opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement—and therefore reinforces the suppression of Black and other minority communities—I call for its removal from a taxpayer-funded and widely-used road,” the group said. “his line is a racist symbol that intimidates Black and minority groups residing in or traveling through Holmdel. The “Blue Lives Matter” movement did not start as an organic tribute to law enforcement; rather, it arose specifically in opposition to Black Lives Matter and implicitly excuses police brutality against Black communities.”

The group also threatened that Buontempo’s job is on the line if he doesn’t remove it.

“s your re-election approaches, I strongly urge you to listen to your constituents—over 200 of whom protested against police brutality and racism right here on June 11—who would be more willing to support you if you engage with our demands. I encourage you to lead by example and remove this unwelcoming symbol from Holmdel’s streets,” they said.

The group also made a cut-and-paste version of their protest letter and scripted phone call and urges Black Lives Matter movements across the state to contact their local governments to remove the Blue Lives Matter lines in their towns.

A photo shared by the group (above) shows the line has significant wear and tear and was not painted in response to the most recent Black Lives Matter protests.

TOMS RIVER, NJ – Election fraud and voter fraud are nothing new in New Jersey, which is why essentially nobody in the entire state was shocked when Paterson officials were arrested for mail-in-ballot fraud.   Unscrupulous politicians, poll workers, campaign workers, and others have been committed fraud for many years in our state.  This is why few people believe this upcoming vote-by-mail election is going to be anything but fair.

Election fraud in New Jersey is a clear and present danger and with this being the first time the state has ever done a 100% mail-in-ballot election, we can surely expect this list to grow exponentially starting in just about 10 days.

Here’s a list of those who got caught. It does not include those who got away with it.

2015 Perth Amboy City Council

Judges overturned the 2015 election after Fernando Gonzalez won a seat on the Perth Amboy City Council by 10 votes in an election where at least 13 illegal absentee ballots were cast. A Superior Court judge subsequently overturned the election results and ordered a new election be held in May 2015 for the seat.

2014 Fraudulent Use of Absentee Ballots in Paterson

Eleven individuals were arrested in a state investigation of possible manipulation of absentee ballots in the election of Paterson Councilman Rigo Rodriguez. They entered into pre-trial intervention, a probationary program, to avoid trial and possible prison time.

2014 Middlesex County

Spencer Robbins, a municipal judge in Middlesex County, was forced to resign after it was discovered he registered to vote (and actually voted in 22 elections and democratic primaries) using the address of his Woodbridge law office. Although charged with two counts of third-degree voter fraud, Robbins was allowed to enter into a pre-trial intervention program, which means the charges will be dismissed if he successfully completes the program. 2014 Paterson

Former Paterson Councilman Rigo Rodriguez and his wife were entered into the Pre-Trial Intervention Program after facing charges of conspiracy, election fraud, mail-in ballot fraud, and witness tampering. Paterson and his wife, who managed his campaign, orchestrated a scheme to take possession of absentee ballots and “assist” voters in filling them out, or fill them out fraudulently. Rodriguez instructed his volunteers to lie to officials investigating his scheme.

2012 Essex County

John Fernandez, who worked for the Essex County Department of  Economic Development, was convicted of election fraud, absentee ballot fraud, and forgery. Fernandez submitted phony absentee ballots while he was working on the 2007 election campaign of state Sen. Teresa Ruiz. Fernandez’s scheme involved messenger ballots, which are used by voters home-bound by illness or a disability. Fernandez fraudulently obtained the ballots, then filled them out in behalf of the voters who had never received them. He received a five-year prison sentence.

2011 Mercer County

Angel Colon pleaded guilty to a charge of second-degree election fraud for fraudulently submitting absentee messenger ballots on behalf of voters who never received the ballots or had an opportunity to cast their votes. He was sentenced to three years in prison.

2011 Atlantic City

Ronald Harris pleaded guilty to charges in connection with an absentee ballot fraud conspiracy, in which he and 13 others shredded ballots which cast votes for the opposition during the 2009 Atlantic City Democratic primary. He was sentenced to 181 days in prison.

2009 New Brunswick

Robert Tierney, a New Brunswick police officer, entered into a pretrial intervention program (PTI), in relation to theft by deception and voter fraud charges that were filed by the New Brunswick Police Department. An investigation revealed Tierney voted four times between 2005 and 2009 in New Brunswick, while actually living in Milltown. He pleaded guilty and was recommended for the PTI program by the state’s probation division. Upon completion of the diversionary program, the charged will be dismissed.

2010 Atlantic City

Ernest Storr pleaded guilty to committing absentee ballot fraud by tampering with ballots in the Atlantic City mayoral campaigns of Marty Small and former Mayor Scott Evans. Storr tampered with absentee ballots and instructed a Small campaign worker to do the same. Storr was one of 14 individuals arrested on various voter fraud charges involving Councilman Small’s failed 2009 mayoral bid. He was sentenced to probation in May 2013.

2010 Essex County

Gianine Narvaez, a former data processing technician for the Essex County Commissioner of Registration and Superintendent of Elections, pleaded guilty to third-degree charges of absentee ballot fraud and tampering with public records or information. Narvaez was sentenced to a three-year prison term.

2009 Senate Election

Rocio Rivera and Edwin Cruz were indicted for tampering with ballots and fraudulently submitting ballots in favor of New Jersey Senator Teresa Ruiz. They and a fellow co-conspirator obtained messenger ballots from the county clerk and submitted them to the board of elections as votes on behalf of voters who, in fact, never received or filled out their ballots. John Fernandez was convicted of conspiracy (2nd degree), election fraud (2nd degree), absentee ballot fraud (3rd degree), tampering with public records or information (3rd degree), and forgery (4th degree). Cruz pleaded guilty to third-degree tampering with public records or information, and Rivera pleaded guilty to third-degree absentee ballot fraud.

2009 State Senate Election

Samuel Gonzalez was indicted for tampering with ballots and fraudulently submitting ballots in favor of New Jersey Senator Teresa Ruiz. He and his co-conspirators obtained messenger ballots from the county clerk and submitted them to the board of elections as votes on behalf of voters who, in fact, never received or filled out their ballots. Gonzalez agreed to forfeit his seat on the freeholder board and his job as an aide to a Newark city councilman, and was admitted into the Pre-Trial Intervention Program.

2009 Roselle Park Council

Former Roselle Borough Council President Jamel Holley was charged with absentee ballot fraud for filling out and submitting more than 20 ballots in the 2006 election. The judge permitted Holley to enter into a pretrial intervention program for one year (if successfully completed, the charges would be dismissed) and to pay a $125 fine. Holley has since been elected mayor of Roselle and appointed to the New Jersey General Assembly.

Atlantic City

Ronald Callaway, also known as Jihad Q. Abdullah, and related to the infamous Atlantic City Callaway Political Organization, pleaded guilty to voting nine times in four elections. He was sentenced to one year.

SURF CITY, NJ – Lifeguards on duty in Surf City on Saturday rescued a pilot after his plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean just off the coast of Long Beach Island.

At approximately 03:20 pm on June 27, 2020, the Surf City Police Department responded to the 13th Street beach for a report of a plane crash into the ocean. Ptl. Costabile and Ptl. Rible arrived on scene and found a small banner plane had crashed into the ocean.

“Upon arrival, Surf City lifeguards, Scott Meggitt and Charles Orborne, had quickly rescued the pilot and were bringing him back to shore. The pilot was treated by Surf City Fire and EMS and transported to Southern Ocean Medical Center with minor injuries,” the department said. “The cause of the crash is under investigation by the Surf City Police Dept. and the Federal Aviation Administration.”

TRENTON, N.J. –  She made a false report to police after eluding police on a high-speed chase then sending officers on a wild goose chance that eventually led to the death of 29-year-old State Trooper Marc Castellano. Now, under Phil Murphy’s COVID-19 jail release program she’s being considered for early release.

 Assemblymen Sean Kean and Edward Thomson called for officials to reject plans to grant early release to the woman whose false report led to the death of a State Trooper from Howell.

The two lawmakers sponsored a 2018 law that named a section of Route 195 in honor of trooper Marc Castellano, who left behind a wife and two children.

“The fact that the state is considering releasing Diana Hoffman early is an insult to all of our dedicated law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line each and every day,” said Kean (R-Monmouth).  “This public health crisis should not be used as an excuse to release this woman-or any other inmate–from paying their debt to society.”

Hoffman was placed on a referral list to be considered under Gov. Murphy’s executive order that allows certain inmates to be released early to combat the spread of Covid-19.  She was convicted in 2011 of creating a false public alarm and eluding police after a high-speed car chase.

After police stopped her on the side of Route 195, Hoffman told them she was with an armed man, which prompted a search of the area.  Castellano, who was 29 year-old, was struck and killed by a passing motorist during the search.

“Just like we will never forget the sacrifice of Trooper Castellano, we cannot forget that Diana Hoffman’s lies resulted in the death of this incredible young man,” said Thomson.  “Granting her early release is a slap in the face to Marc Castellano’s family who suffered a devastating loss because of her selfish and irresponsible decisions.”

TOMS RIVER, NJ – Jack Ciattarelli, the man who is challenging Governor Phil Murphy on the Republican side of the aisle in 2021 said Governor Phil Murphy and Attorney General Gurbir Grewal have gone too far.   Ciatarelli said this week that their new knee-jerk scheme to shame the state’s police officers for transgressions, some decades-old is out of line.

TOMS RIVER, NJ – The Ocean County Board of Chosen Freeholders is going to vote on Wednesday to give Toms River Township $1,880,000 so Toms River Mayor Maurice Hill can save face and try to balance his out-of-control 7% increased budget for 2020.  The county is doing a public land swap, buying public land owned by Toms River near Cattus Island Park and Ocean County College in return for nearly $2,000,00 in cash, paid for by resident of the rest of the county.

The deal is essentially a $2,000,000 tree and swamp buy.

It brings up the question, should county public tax dollars, collected from all of the towns in the county be used to help a struggling mayor in Toms River to save face with voters and residents he has failed and let down?

Parts of Toms River’s Shelter Cove park will switch hands to the county.  The land right now is disconnected, inaccessible and essentially useless.  The land is preserved marshland along the Barnegat Bay.

The other parcel includes another group of preserved open space between Church Road and Ocean County College.  These lots potentially could be used for future expansion at Ocean County College, so residents in that area should show up and ask, because one the deal is done, don’t be upset if dorms pop up in your backyard one day down the line.

In total, over $167 acres will be sold to the county.

Photo by Lukasz Szmigiel on Unsplash

HOUSTON, TEXAS – The Houston Chronicle has reported that there has been an increase in COVID-19 cases among police officers and protesters since the May 30th George Floyd protests, contradicting accounts from governors in states such as New York and New Jersey who claim those peaceful protests were not mitigating factors in the recent spike in COVID-19.

Since June 6th, at least 23 offices have tested positive for COVID-19, the Chronicle reported.   That is more than 1/3 of the total police officer caseload since the pandemic began in March.

Today, the Houston Fire Department has 186 firefighters in quarantine and the city has seen a steady flow of 800 to 1,000 new cases each day, according to KHOU-11.  Harris County Texas has issued a LEVEL-1 Red Alert to the city, warning residents to stay indoors as local hospitals are reaching capacity.  146 police officers are now in quarantine.

“This is very real,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said. “This is a healthcare crisis.”

The city of Houston said the increase has nothing to do with the protests, but more to do with reopening bars and restaurants.

Since the George Floyd protests in New Jersey, this state has also seen an uptick in COVID-19 infections among younger adults, but Governor Phil Murphy also blames the infection increase on young adults at bars, beaches and parties not social distancing and wearing PPE.

A recent spike in cases of COVID-19 among younger New Jerseyans has caught the attention of Governor Phil Murphy and state health chief, Judith Persichilli.  When asked if that spike has any correlation with Black Lives Matter protests or the George Floyd riots, Murphy declined.

“I don’t think there’s any evidence we have that the George Floyd related protests have led to this. I’m not aware of any evidence. I’m far more convinced that this is intensely close proximity, indoor realities,” Murphy said,

SEASIDE HEIGHTS, NJ –  Governor Phil Murphy on Friday said he is not lifting his moratorium for evictions for hotel and motel owners.  Many hotels are now housing families in their place of business for free, who have stopped paying rent as a result on Murphy’s ban placed on evictions as the COVID-19 pandemic began.  These hotels,  many of which are located along the Jersey Shore which housed seasonal occupants now need to clear their rooms for paying customers.

They can’t, according to Governor Murphy. The only relief hotel and motel owners received was on June 22nd when they were once again permitted to rent their facilities to full occupancy.

Knowing they cannot be evicted, many long term residents of motels and hotels simply stopped paying rent, knowing the owners cannot legally evict them at this time.

“I have nothing to add in terms of lifting the moratorium, and I guess I would just say that this isn’t, as I mentioned, when you compare what we’re going through to the Great Depression or the Civil War, I think everyone has to realize to say this is unprecedented,” Murphy said.

On March 19th, Murphy enacted an “eviction moratorium,” and means that no tenant may be removed from his or her home as a result of an eviction proceeding, with rare exceptions for cases such as when a tenant is violent or endangering other tenants.

This moratorium will last two months after the Governor declares the end of the state of emergency.

Once courts reopened, landlords were able to resume eviction proceedings, but the eviction cannot happen until the moratorium is lifted, according to the executive order.

“The eviction moratorium will last until two months after Governor Murphy declares an end to the COVID-19 health crisis, unless the Governor issues another Executive Order to end it sooner. Local officials will then resume removing tenants who are subject to final court orders of eviction,” the executive order reads.

Photo by Angel Origgi on Unsplash

TRENTON, NJ – Matt Platkin a member of Governor Phil Murphy’s inner circle and chief legal counsel said on Friday he and the state aware that mail-in ballots being filled out by voters and returned to their county clerks are indeed being returned and not delivered by the United States Postal Service.

Platkin confirmed this has happened in a number of counties, but did not give an exact count and the issue was the result of a design flaw in the ballot making process.  The problem, Platkin said is ongoing and not resolved.  Scanners are reading the sender’s address as the recipient and mailing it back to the homes of voters.

“There were a number of counties. The issue that’s happened, we worked with the US Postal Service to design the ballots so that their scanners would accurately read the return address,” Platkin said. “The scanners are picking up the sender’s, the voters address for some reason, so we’ve alerted the postal service of that on the call, as the Governor mentioned. Actually, that concern came out of conversations we’ve had with the various counties, so Mercer’s one, but there are several we’re aware of it and working on it.”

Platkin gave no time frame for the issues to be fixed with the election now less than two weeks from now.

Many people across the state either did not receive their ballots and many are receiving ballots for the wrong party in the upcoming primary election.

Early on in the process, our very own Joe Rullo was among the first to question the government’s ability to successfully hold a completely vote-by-mail election.

“New Jersey can’t even process people’s unemployment checks, how do you expect me to believe the state can handle counting millions of vote-by-mail ballots?”

A mail carrier truck fire this week also damaged an undetermined amount of ballots according to election officials who are still unable to determine whose ballots were destroyed in the fire.

Photo by Pope Moysuh on Unsplash

NEWARK, NJ – Overnight Thursday and into the morning on Friday, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka had city workers remove a statue of Christopher Columbus from the city’s Washington Park.

“In keeping with the movement to remove symbols of oppression and white supremacy, we have decided to remove the statue of Christopher Columbus from Washington Park. We took it down with City work crews in a safe and orderly manner, to avoid the potential danger of people taking it upon themselves to topple it,” Mayor Baraka said. “The removal of this statue should not be perceived as an insult to the Italian-American community. It is a statement against the barbarism, enslavement, and oppression that this explorer represents.”

The statue and memorial were erected in 1927.

The statue was the brainchild of Italian-American John Dibiase, who was a member of the Giuseppe Verdi Society.   The statue was a gift to the city, paid for by the residents of the city’s Little Italy/Nevarca neighborhood.  It was unveiled on Columbus Day in front of nearly 50,000 residents.

A message on the statue’s base reads, “To Christopher Columbus, Immortal Genoese. Erected by the Italians in this land perceived through his genius in the year 1492.”