IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…

LEGISLATORS MUST MOVE ON REFORMS

Editorial, Daily Journal of Vineland, March 31, 2007 

  

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT... 

A state under suspicion

Editorial, The Star-Ledger

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Just to recap the past week here in the Garden State:

State Sen. Wayne Bryant, a powerful Democrat from Camden County, was indicted on federal charges of bribery, fraud and corruption ...

R. Michael Gallagher, a former dean at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, also was indicted, accused of having "cooked the books" to enhance his performance bonuses ...

Subpoenas were served on Sen. Nicholas Scutari, Sen. Joseph Coniglio and Assemblyman Brian Stack in an expanding federal investigation of so-called "Christmas tree" grants tucked into the state budget each year ...

More federal subpoenas were aimed at state Sen. Sharpe James, the former mayor of Newark, as part of a wide-ranging investigation of his final years at City Hall ..

A former assemblyman, Rudy Garcia, once mayor of Union City, was named as one of the participants in a massive money laundering-gambling ring ...

But wait there's more. The feds are looking at Joseph Cryan, the state Democratic chairman who also is a state assemblyman and a Union County undersheriff, because of possibly illegal political donations from charitable organizations.

A new president of UMDNJ was named despite spending questions in his re cent past.

And Gov. Jon Corzine is mired in a controversy of his own making as complaints persist about his gifts to a former girlfriend, who is a union official.

Makes you proud to be living in the highest property tax state in the union, doesn't it?  

 

 O’TOOLE AND RUSSO SAY SPECIAL LEGISLATIVE SESSION MAY BE ONLY WAY TO END IMPASSE ON ETHICS REFORM  

 Calling on Governor Corzine to Force the Legislature To Convene and Enact Tough Anti-Corruption Package  

           In response to the unprecedented flurry of subpoenas, arrests and indictment of public officials this week, Assemblymen Kevin J. O’Toole and David C. Russo are calling on Governor Jon S. Corzine to convene a special session of the Legislature to deal with ethics reform.

             “Even by New Jersey standards, the events of the last several days are a major embarrassment,� said O’Toole, R-Bergen, Essex and Passaic. “The time to pull the trip wire and halt the cavalcade of corruption in New Jersey is already long overdue.�

             “How much more evidence is needed to convince the Democrats who control the legislative agenda in Trenton that dramatic action must be taken immediately to repair the damage and begin the process of restoring public confidence in their elected representatives?� asked Russo, also R-Bergen, Essex and Passaic.