I was stuck in traffic here last evening, too.

---------------------------------------------------
Building work triggers snarl

Thursday, December 20, 2007
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

The partial collapse of a building near Jersey City's Brennan Court House yesterday had demolition crews working overnight to render the vacant building safe, officials said.

At 8:55 a.m., firefighters responded to the four-story brick building at Baldwin and Pavonia avenues on a report of the collapse and at 10 a.m. the city Building Department took over and deemed the structure unsafe, Fire Director Armando Roman said.

Engineers ordered the building demolished, but the owner's attorney was able to stay the order, Roman said. The city then ordered the roof and a portion of the brickwork removed as a temporary fix, Roman said.

As work went on last night, traffic on Newark, Summit and Baldwin avenues and other area streets was snarled, officials said.

http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/index ... 98134657103141.xml&coll=3

Yesterday I received a postcard in the mail that says, "Thank you for ordering the Comcast Service Protection Plan." I never signed up for any service plan.

Did anyone else receive this? Most people probably thought it was junk mail and immediately threw it out.

The postcard does not mention how much it cost.

What a scammer Comcast is!

Try the New York Craigslist:
http://newyork.craigslist.org/jsy/

You need to simplify your ad. It is too much to read. I like to see pictures of the unit and the view from the windows.

See page 12 of today's 'The Jersey City Reporter'. Hudson County only accepts #1 and #2 plastic bottles and jars. I wish they can distribute posters that we can put up in the garbage room.

Got PTI after benefits fraud case, prior to drug bust

Friday, November 30, 2007
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A February marijuana arrest for Phillip Flood II - whose mother is Jersey City Councilwoman and Hudson County Register Willie Flood - was merely his latest brush with the law, officials said yesterday.

According to the state Attorney General's Office, Flood II - who was recently hired to two government jobs working for his mother - waived his right to a trial by jury when the state accused him last year of unlawfully collecting $13,000 of unemployment insurance.

Flood II allegedly committed this theft by deception - a third-degree crime - between Aug. 4, 2001 and Aug. 23, 2003, according the documents. He was accused of filling out state forms saying he was unemployed when, in fact, he was employed.

Peter Aseltine, a spokesman for the attorney general, said last night he couldn't tell from the paperwork if Flood II pleaded guilty to the accusation.

What is clear is that Flood II, 29, waived his right to an indictment by grand jury and a trial by jury and entered a pre-trial intervention program, which resulted in no crime being entered on his record, Aseltine said.

Before Flood II entered the pre-trial intervention program, in September of last year, he paid back all the money, Aseltine said.

Reached yesterday at the Register's Office, where he was hired on Oct. 17 as a $38,000-a-year data processing systems programmer, Flood II said he had "no comment on anything."

His attorney, Philip Matsikoudis, declined to comment, citing attorney/client privilege.

In February, Flood II, 29, was busted for allegedly selling marijuana out of his mother's Mercedes Benz at Wayne and Barrow streets.

That charge was downgraded to a disorderly persons offense and referred to the Jersey City Municipal Court, which didn't respond yesterday to inquiries into how the case was resolved.

Last week, Flood II started a second government gig. His mother, who didn't return phone calls yesterday seeking comment, hired him as her $15,000-a-year aide.

Asked if his mother played a role in securing his county and council jobs, Flood II, replied, "Not to my knowledge."

http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/index ... 96406403289130.xml&coll=3

He's a data processing systems programmer? I would like to see his resume and college transcripts.

If any of you had any real estate transactions the last few months, you better check your tax and real estate records.

http://www.cityofjerseycity.com/taxes.aspx?id=980

I was looking at the records for my building and I saw that Jersey City had one of neighbors married to someone else last month. I know they bought another unit in the building. But instead of changing the ownership of the other unit, Jersey City changed the husband's name to someone else on their current unit. Or maybe there is some kind of scam going on at City Hall.

It is changed even here:
http://www.njactb.org/

How does art.com or allposters.com shipped their pictures? How about the galleries downtown?

You can look in the garbage for flat screen tv boxes and the styrofoam material that comes with it. Or ask the stores.

I have leftover styrofoam popcorn from a flat screen tv that I ordered from 6th Avenue Electronics. They shipped the tv box inside another box filled with popcorn.

If you want the styrofoam popcorn, PM me.

A strong leader would call the JCPA to straighten them out, instead of complaining about the courts not forgiving the JCPA's constant mistakes.

From The Record:
----------------------------------------------
Bright idea: 100,000 free light bulbs
Tuesday, November 20, 2007

By ALEX NUSSBAUM
STAFF WRITER

North Jersey's largest electric supplier will hand out 100,000 free compact fluorescent light bulbs to its customers, taking the crusade against global warming to the grass roots.

The bulbs could cut state emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gasses by 40,000 tons over their lifetime, all while trimming customers' power bills, said Ralph Izzo, the chief executive of PSEG Enterprise Inc., parent company of Public Service Electric and Gas Co.

"While climate change is a global problem, there are steps that each of us can take to make a difference," Izzo said Monday during a Newark press conference to announce the campaign.

The bulbs, limited to one per customer, will be handed out by company staff on service calls and distributed via the utility's 16 customer service centers. The main targets of the giveaway are the low- and moderate-income consumers who use the centers most often, Izzo said, though anyone can have a bulb.

"All of our customers should have universal access to these improvements," he said.

The utility supplies most of Bergen, Passaic and Hudson counties and Lincoln Park in Morris County. Locally, it has service centers in Hackensack, Passaic and Paterson.

Fluorescent bulbs require 75 percent less energy than traditional incandescent models. That means fewer greenhouse gasses spewing from power plants powered by fossil fuels.

The utility sees the campaign mainly as an "educational tool," Izzo said.

Each bulb will also save customers about $30 in electricity costs over its lifetime, he added.

The announcement came two days after a United Nations panel issued its latest grim assessment of global warming science. The panel warned that humanity had only a few years to start reversing the trend before devastating changes to the climate become inevitable.

Studies have forecast severe flooding along the Jersey Shore and mass extinctions of wildlife, U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., noted at the press conference.

"We all have a stake in this," he said.

The utility is not acting solely out of altruism. It wants state approval to finance customers' installations of solar panels, energy?efficient appliances and other equipment. Its proposals call for rate increases to help pay for the effort.

It also wants to build a new nuclear plant in South Jersey and realizes it needs to promote conservation and renewable energies first to win the public's approval, Izzo said.

"To the extent that we get prompt state action to create that business opportunity for utilities, we'll then show others that you can do well by doing good," he said.

Article

Press Release

Moloney's Meat Market
627 Newark Ave
Jersey City, NJ 07306
(201) 653-1764

It's at Newark and Central Ave.

Channel 7 has some pictures.

--------------------------------------------------

Fire burns through church in Jersey City

WABC Eyewitness News

(Jersey City - WABC, November 13, 2007) - A three-alarm fire damaged the century-old Bethesda Baptist Church in Jersey City Tuesday afternoon.

Officials say the fire damaged the front doors and some of the inside of the church, located at 158 Mercer Street just after 1 p.m.

It appears to have started in the basement.

Firefighters extinguished the flames and are assessing the damage.

The church deacon and a secretary were inside at the time but were able to escape unharmed.

The church was built in 1894 and originally served the Scottish community.

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=local&id=5759304

I didn't know where Fatso was pulling his money out of. His ass? I thought he was talking about stocks that are not blue chip.

What about the rest of the election? I didn't know there was an election until I got the sample ballot in the mail.

My doorman told me that the Portside Deli got broken into last night. They came in the inside door that comes from the Portside Towers. Maybe several thousand dollars were taken. I'm not sure.

New York Times:

October 29, 2007
F.C.C. Set to End Sole Cable Deals for Apartments
By STEPHEN LABATON

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 ?The Federal Communications Commission, hoping to reduce the rising costs of cable television, is preparing to strike down thousands of contracts this week that gave individual cable companies exclusive rights to provide service to an apartment building, the agency?s chairman says.

The new rule could open markets across the country to far-ranging competition. It would also be a huge victory for Verizon Communications and AT&T, which have challenged the cable industry by offering their own video services. The two companies have lobbied aggressively for the provision. They have been supported in their fight by consumer groups, satellite television companies and small rivals to the big cable providers.

Commission officials and consumer groups said the new rule could significantly lower cable prices for millions of subscribers who live in apartment buildings and have had no choice in selecting a company for paid television. Government and private studies show that when a second cable company enters a market, prices can drop as much as 30 percent.

The change, which is set to be approved Wednesday, is expected to have a particular effect on prices for low-income and minority families. They have seen cable prices rise about three times the rate of inflation over the last decade. A quarter of American households live in apartment buildings housing 50 or more residents, but 40 percent of households headed by Hispanics and African-Americans live in such buildings.

?Exclusive contracts have been one of the most significant barriers to competition,? Kevin J. Martin, chairman of the commission, said in an interview. Cable prices have risen ?about 93 percent in the last 10 years,? he said. ?This is a way to introduce additional competition, which will result in lower prices and greater innovation.?

The decision is the latest in a series of actions by the commission under Mr. Martin to put pressure on cable companies to lower their rates and make their markets more competitive. In December, in a 3-to-2 decision, the commission approved a proposal by Mr. Martin to force municipalities to accelerate the local approval process for the telephone companies to enter new markets. The phone companies had asserted that many municipalities had been delaying approvals, often in the face of cable industry lobbying.

Last month, the commission approved a rule that requires the largest cable companies to provide programs produced by their affiliates to all of their rivals, including the phone companies and satellite television companies. The commission is also considering a proposal to make it less expensive for independent programmers to lease channels from cable companies.

Mr. Martin has also pressed the cable companies to offer so-called ? la carte plans that would permit subscribers to buy individual channels, or groups of channels, at lower rates than they now pay.

The new rule would shift the bargaining power over cable and broadband services to apartment residents from landlords and tenant associations. It has been long sought by consumer groups as part of a broader effort to cut prices to the roughly 100 million households that pay for access to television.

The change would be an abrupt reversal for the commission, which only four years ago ruled that such exclusive agreements sometimes actually promoted competition by giving landlords the leverage to negotiate for the best terms.

Commission officials said they had prohibited other exclusive contracts involving telecommunications, including those in commercial buildings, but trade groups representing cable companies and building owners have indicated they may challenge the commission?s move in court.

Commission officials said the rule aims to put an end to some common practices of landlords and tenant associations that have deprived tenants of choices. They said that in many communities, there has been only one cable provider, and while landlords and tenant associations could select a satellite television provider, the competition from those companies has not led to lower cable prices.

The cable companies have also managed to shut out competition by signing long-term exclusive deals. The officials said they hoped that opening the apartment doors to the telephone companies, which offer the same packages of television, broadband and phone services as the cable companies, would force the cable companies to cut their rates.

A few states, including New York, have laws that either restrict or prohibit a landlord or tenant association from entering into an exclusive contract with a cable company. But most states have no such laws, and no state has struck down existing exclusive contracts. Commission officials, consumer groups and rival companies maintain that even in those states like New York with access laws, the rules are not uniformly enforced. They said a federal regulation would fix that.

In one area alone, Hilton Head, S.C., a small cable provider, the Hargray CATV Company, has been battling for two years with its larger rival, Time Warner, which claims to have an exclusive contract forever to provide service in developments to more than 20,000 customers. Similar battles have been waged between other cable companies and rivals involving buildings across the country.

Moreover, consumer groups said the number of lengthy exclusive contracts appears to have increased in recent months as AT&T and Verizon have begun to expand their video services and as the commission has indicated it might intervene to ban exclusive arrangements.

?For people in apartment buildings, this could be the most significant step towards bringing down cable prices,? said Gene Kimmelman, vice president for federal affairs at the Consumers Union. ?Most people in apartment buildings have been subject to a monopoly provider, with little or no local control and no federal control over pricing. This is the most significant step regulators can take short of regulating prices.?

But large cable companies, as well as associations representing building owners and tenant groups, said the change would fundamentally alter the economics of cable television in apartments in ways that would be harmful to consumers. They are threatening to challenge the commission in court.

?It is both unlawful and, as a matter of public policy, wholly inappropriate and counterproductive for the commission to bar cable operators from enforcing existing exclusive contracts,? said Daniel L. Brenner, a senior vice president of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, the cable industry?s main trade association in Washington. ?Exclusive contracts and building-by-building competition can, in fact, promote investment, efficiency and competition.?

The commission and trade groups said they did not know the precise number of contracts, though they estimated the amount to be in the thousands.

The cable industry and the owner associations said the cable companies were often granted exclusive rights to buildings after agreeing to make major capital investments in upgrading systems, and that a new rule striking the exclusivity clauses would be an illegal taking of property in violation of the Fifth Amendment.

?The F.C.C.?s approach is wrongheaded,? said Jim Arbury, senior vice president for government affairs at the National Multi-Housing Council, which represents about 1,000 owners, managers and developers. ?They think that banning exclusives means there will be more competition, when the fact is that exclusive contracts play a definite role in the area of promoting competition.?

He continued: ?It allows the apartment owner to play the various providers off against each other and get the best deal for residents in terms of quality and price.?

Commission officials say that the agency has previously prohibited exclusive contracts in other telecommunications areas, and that the courts have upheld such restrictions.

The commission has, for instance, prohibited exclusive contracts for telecommunications services in commercial buildings. It has also required telephone companies that provide service to apartments to offer access to their wires to rival companies.


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/business/media/29cable.html?

--------------------------

This article mentions Comcast:
FCC To Vote To End Exclusive Cable-Condo Building Deals

Quote:

I picked up a brand new DVR on 9/27 at Comcast's office on Kennedy Blvd. Maybe it is hit or miss dependly on what day you go.

I orderd the Digital Preferred plan plus HDTV. The stupid girl there added "Howard Stern" to my account. I didn't know till a few days later when I had a technician at my place because I didn't set up the DVR properly. He showed me what was on my account. The technician was good. I never had any problems with the technicians that visited my place.

On channel 2 today at 5 pm, they report about mold found in a trailer classroom at P.S. 16 in Paulus Hook.

id=104578@wcbs.dayport.com" title="http://wcbstv.com/video/?id=104578@wcbs.dayport.com" rel="noopener external">http://wcbstv.com/video/?id=104578@wcbs.dayport.com

Quote:

What were the recent incidents? Where? Are they riding the trains?

There is a video here:

http://wcbstv.com/local/jersey.city.new.2.340926.html

I don't think there are any 'rent to own' around here. It is probably not worth it. If you see something you like and you can afford it, why not buy it. If you are from out of town, try renting short term so that you can shop around more carefully.

I am thinking of selling my condo, but I have two neighbors who hasn't found a buyer for the last several months. Probably they are overpriced. I'm not sure what to do either. I have my eye on this condo that went down in price two times. Maybe I should buy it and rent my old place out.

Quote:

Webmaster,

I do not understand your logic. Do you only allow one person per household to post on JCList? There were husbands and wives posting here. Roommates not allowed? Friends are not allowed to use each other's computer when they visit each other? Do we all have to have our own IP address in order to post?

I saw nothing wrong with their posts. They just didn't know how to ignore the know-it-alls.

News12:

Arrests made in string of random, vicious beatings

(09/19/07) JERSEY CITY - Detectives say they have caught five people responsible for a string of random, vicious beatings in Jersey City.

Police say there were four attacks in the early morning hours of August 25. All of the attacks were within blocks of each other over three hours in the Bergen-Lafayette section. Authorities also say the suspects videotaped the attacks, but two of the incidents were never reported to police.

Authorities arrested 18-year-old Jerrik Taylor, of Harlem, and five juveniles. All of the suspects are from Jersey City and New York. Police say the juveniles could be tried as adults.

Video: http://news12.cv.net/video/DN919BTT.wmv
Link: http://www.news12.com/NJ/topstories/article?id=200348#

---------------------------------------------------------------------

1010Wins:

Jersey City Mayor Set His Sights on 'Wilding' Teens

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- The mayor of Jersey City is calling for tougher laws Wednesday against juvenile offenders as he describes the recent busting of what authorities say was a group of teens who committed a series of thrill attacks on local residents.

Police say a group of 13-18-year-olds preyed on defenseless Jersey City residents and attacked them in a "wilding" ganglike fashion and videotaped the beatings to post online. These are the same teens who were previously arrested in connection with the unprovoked beating of an elderly man, authorities said.

"What I saw on that video disturbed me greatly," said police chief Tom Comey. "I will call them nothing other than thugs, that's what they are."

Mayor Jerramiah Healy and Comey say the group is responsible for at least six attacks and want to change the state law and post the names and addresses of juvenile offenders.

"We see no reason to go along with this cloak of secrecy," said Healy.

Healy said like Megan's Law, the public needs to know where the "predators" are, regardless of their age.

Audio: http://www.1010wins.com/play_window.p ... e=Episode&audioId=1010249
Link: http://www.1010wins.com/pages/968355.php?

Quote:

Be careful if you are using the computer at work. They can log in everything you type and the websites you go to.

This article about the Jersey City Medical Center was in the Jersey Journal:

JCMC maternity staff lauded by patients, company

Tuesday, September 04, 2007
By KEENAN STEINER
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

After falling on her stomach, 18-year-old Dana Bedacie, of Jersey City, was told her son's heart rate had suddenly dropped and she would have to deliver him by Caesarean section five weeks prematurely. She said she was glad it was done at Jersey City Medical Center.

It seems that decision was for good reason, as Johnson & Johnson has honored the nursing team in the maternity unit at the hospital with a certificate for outstanding patient care. The award makes the maternity team eligible for a $1,000 educational grant from Johnson & Johnson.

In the hospital's own rankings of its nursing units, based on patient response surveys, the maternity nurses were ranked first for the first two quarters of this year, according to April Major, the unit's head nurse.

Last year, they were rated near the bottom, she said.

On Friday, Bedacie, laying in a hospital bed in a spacious room with her husband, Zaheer Ameerally, sitting beside her, said she was comfortable at the Medical Center, which was not the case at other hospitals she had been to during her pregnancy.

The couple chose to switch to the Medical Center largely because of its neonatal intensive care unit.

As soon as the couple arrived at the Medical Center, Bedacie said, the nurses gave them a tour of the hospital and Bedacie said she felt "at home."

Since becoming head nurse a year ago, Major said she has made an effort to improve how patients perceive their care. She has encouraged nurses to make hourly rounds, to "individualize" care based on a patient's culture and needs, and to treat patients like they are family.

Brynne Ortquist, a hospital midwife, said patients feel comfortable because of the unit's family-oriented approach.

"I want to treat everyone as if they're my mother or sister. (Giving birth) is a family, social event and shouldn't be treated like a sickness," she said.

http://www.nj.com/jjournal/stories/in ... 18888537098810.xml&coll=3

I believe there is a fire code that does not allow storage in the garage.

From the light-rail, you can see graffiti on top of Target's. How did the kids climb up there?

It looks like Pho Thang Long is closed for renovations. We all know what that means. That's too bad. I was looking forward to it for lunch.

I went to the Panda House Chinese Restaurant instead. It was clean and cool. Food was decent.

After lunch, we walked up Fairmount Avenue, between Bergen Avenue and Kennedy Boulevard. That was not a nice block to walk up. There was dog poop on the sidewalk. The buildings are not as nice as on Duncan. There were people hanging around, and an unleashed scarey dog there. Duncan is much nicer.

I had lunch at Pho Thang Long Vietnamese Restaurant today. I had the grilled chicken on rice. Delicious.

After lunch, I walked up Duncan Avenue to see what this building looked like. It doesn't look as nice as the pre-war building next door. But I like the big front yard. It is set back from the street which is nice. The block seems nice in the daytime. There were some parking spaces on the street. I don't know what it looks like at night.

My new Mastercard came in the mail a few days ago. But it has to be activated from my home telephone, and I have to talk to some fake American half the world away who was trying to sell me credit monitoring.

There will always be out-of-towners and newcomers who will leave things in the car.