Chilltown:

The "tiny check" is likely just the tip of the iceberg. For Vega and all of them. Greed knows no limits and this investigation has been going on for a decade. Will be interesting to see how much money these scumbags collected over the years.

But whether you do it once or you've been doing it for ten years, you're still busted.

I almost wish one of them did fall over one small check. Idiot.

Someone asked about how to do a recall. Here's a Hudson Reporter article (about JCList) discussing just this subject:

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Hudson Reporter

While the internet is always full of angry chatter about political incumbents, in recent weeks, a downtown Jersey City website called JCList has been filled with talk of initiating a recall of the mayor and the members of the City Council.

Is this idle chatter, or an actual movement? It?s hard to tell.

Longtime city activist Yvonne Balcer is one of the people who wrote to JCList on the topic of recall, posting information and inviting other posters to join together to pursue the issue.
_____________

?I think you need a couple of issues down the road, another year or two.??Yvonne Balcer
________

Balcer, a York Street resident, conducts a public access TV show called SpeakNJ. Earlier this month, she videotaped a rally in West New York led by Dr. Felix Roque for her show. Roque is a West New York activist who is attempting to recall West New York Mayor Sal Vega because of high taxes in that town.

Balcer said that while she doesn?t see a recall of newly re-elected Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy and the council coming soon, she can picture it happening in the next few years.

?I think you need a couple of issues down the road, another year or two,? Balcer said. ?I think it?s when people are going to get upset about tax increases, especially in this economy.?

Coincidentally, the City Council voted at a special meeting on Wednesday to introduce an interim municipal tax levy that would result in a tax increase (see related brief on page 2).

The first conversations about recall on JCList started in mid-June, the day after the outgoing City Council voted 6-3 at their June 17 meeting to amend the tax abatement requested by the developers of Crystal Point, a 269-unit luxury condo tower located on Second Street.

Members of the public opposed reducing the developer?s payments, citing the 30 per cent citywide property tax increase in the past four years. Several posters took issue not just with the vote but also with the council members who voted in the affirmative, taking them to task for being ?clowns? and being part of the Healy ?machine.?

Against a recall

Dan Levin is another longtime community activist and former mayoral candidate who posted on JCList about the recall issue. However, Levin, one of the founders of the local organization Civic JC, and its political arm, One Jersey City, is against the idea.

?Mayor Healy won on the May 12 ballot, and if people didn?t like what he stood for, then they should have voted him out of office,? Levin said. ?It?s easier to pour our energies into work for reform and better government.?

Those calling for a recall have made an exception for downtown Jersey City Councilman Steve Fulop, a frequent Healy critic whom they think is doing a good job.

Last week, Fulop said he understands the frustration of those calling for recall. But he said a recall will only mean another election after just getting through one.

?We just had a six-month election, and there will be more money spent and campaigning if a special election happens because of a recall,? Fulop said.

How to do it

The last recall effort in recent decades in Jersey City was in 1971, when two insurgent organizations gathered enough signatures to force recall of Mayor Thomas J. Whelan. Before a recall election could occur, however, he was convicted in federal court of conspiracy and extortion in a multi-million dollar political kickback scheme on city and county contracts, and was removed from office.

In New Jersey, a committee of three people is formed to initiate a recall drive. One of them has to file a ?notice of intention? for a recall with the municipal clerk. Once that notice is approved, the next step, within 160 days after filing the notice, is collecting signatures from at least 25 percent of the town?s registered voters as of the last general election, in this case November of 2008.

Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonrreporter.com.

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Hmmmm...very first post "defending" Vega. But here's an answer to your question anyway.

New Jersey, (especially Hudson County and Jersey City) have been saturated in the culture of corruption for such a long time that the politicians became desensitized and thought that this is how it works and that they simply wouldn't get caught; mostly because they thought no one really cared or was really looking into it. It's gone on this long, why should it change now? At least that's how I assume they looked at it.

This should not really be a shock to anyone here. The old timers in this city are simply used to the backroom dealing and just sort of live with it. Some might even see it as quaint.

The problem for the politicians is that they got greedy and started to see bigger opportunities in front of them. The more development that came into the city, the more opportunities there were for making more money. But these new developments are bringing in a different demographic. Those who are paying the outrageous (albeit abated) property taxes actually expect something for their money.

Alas, many of these people haven't made the jump to seeing Jersey City as their home; it's just the place they sleep. And our election officials have been counting on this.

But this isn't the case for everyone who has moved over here and more and more people are paying attention. And those who are paying attention have likely begun to make enough noise that those at higher levels (ie, the FBI) started paying closer attention.

The irony in all of this is that the people who are now being brought down unknowingly created the very atmosphere that facilitated it. Talk about falling on ones own petard.

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Healy does have a reputation for eating almost exclusively at the Medical Center Luncheonette, which is a short walk from the Astor Bar, of course.

so will i, i can dedicate alot of time.

Quote:

If this indeed turns out to be Healy, Thats seems just as incriminating as the "Allstate." quote.

Not a big Healy fan, but never thought he was as bad as people here thought. Thought he could be an oaf at times (doorstep and bar incidents), but not so horrible.

My little confidence in him is, like many others, all gone.
Two members (Catrillo and Vega) and his campaign treasurer arrested (after touting the crime issue), and Lopez not properly vetted.

Even if he escapes prosecution, or is even indeed innocent, this is enough for me to want him out of office.

So my question is, what do we, as citizens, need to do to get a special election. A lawsuit? Collect signatures? I will stand at the path station collecting them.

I think it would be really cool if we could also see a list of the honest politicians who turned down offers from Zwek. For all of the guys the FBI caught, I am sure there were many who did the right thing. I'd like to know who the honest guys are as well!

I am so turned on right now.

Mayor Jerramiah Healy is official mentioned in three Jersey City corruption complaints
By Matt Friedman, PolitickerNJ.com Reporter

Mayor Jerramiah Healy is official mentioned in three Jersey City corruption complaintsBy Matt Friedman, PolitickerNJ.com Reporter Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, the Hudson County Democratic ChairmanSince the indictments of more than a dozen Jersey City officials and political figures came down yesterday, Jersey City has been rife with speculation about the identity of "JC Official 4" - a high ranking Jersey City elected official who turns up prominently in the federal complaint against Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini, city official Ed Cheatam and political consultant Jack Shaw.

The federal complaint mentions what appears to be the indicted officials acting as a middleman for "JC Official 4," taking cash in exchange and structuring it to donate to his campaign fund in exchange for his help furthering cooperating witness Solomon Dwek's real estate interests.

PolitickerNJ.com has confirmed that "JC Official 4" is Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, the Hudson County Democratic Chairman. A source close to the mayor admitted as much, but held that he had done nothing wrong.

"JC Official 4" is described in the complaint as "a high-ranking elected official in Jersey City, NJ... (who) was seeking reelection on or about May 12, 2009."

That "JC Official 4" appeared to be Healy was first mentioned by the Jersey City Independent's Jon Whiten yesterday, who noted that the complaint said that Beldini was treasurer for Jersey City 4's reelection campaign. In this year's election, Beldini was treasurer only for Mayor Healy's campaign.

According to the complaint, "JC Official 4" first met with Dwek on March 13 of this year, along with the three defendants. The complaint does not quote him at that meeting, with only Shaw and Cheatem telling him that Dwek "the CW was ready to develop real estate with JC Official 4's ?help' and ?assistance,' and JC Official 4 was further advised by the CW that ?approvals are key.'"

After "JC Official 4" left the meeting, Shaw allegedly told Dwek to make the payments through him, after which Beldini assured him that she and "JC Official 4" would "help move" his real estate "approvals" along.

The money was paid to the "JC Official 4" campaign through $10,000 tickets to a fundraiser, according to the complaint. Beldini is quoted telling Dwek that "[w]hat we're trying to do is put money into different funds so we can, when we need it, funnel it back into [JC Official 4's election fund]. Which everybody does."

According to the complaint, Shaw described "JC Official 4" as "very happy" with the contributions.

In a meeting with Beldini, Shaw and Cheatam at a Jersey City luncheonette on April 30, Dwek told her that he was applying for a zoning change and did not want it to go to the "bottom" of the pile.

"Beldini responded that she could say ?one thing' about JC Official 4--JC Official 4 ?remembered' JC Official 4's "friends," and JC Official 4's word was ?gold,'" according to the complaint.

The complaint says that Dwek agreed to make two more payments - one for $10,000 immediately after that day's meeting, and another after the election.

"JC Official 4" later showed up to the meeting, where according to the complaint he was told by Cheatam Dwek wanted to be "on top" of the "pile," and that he had given $10,000, planned to give $10,000 after that day's meeting and again after the election.

"JC Official 4 responded, among other things, that hopefully "we" could work "together" and that this would be "mutually beneficial," read the complaint.

After the meeting, outside of the luncheonette, Shaw allegedly told Dwek that everybody was "happy as hell" with the arrangement and accepted $10,000 in cash.

Quote:

As I walked past City Hall this morning, there was a newsman interviewing passers-by. I did not get stopped, but as I continued on my way I thought to myself, if I were to be asked what I thought of the situation I would definately say something about these two and how we do have some good guys trying to make a difference.

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See post #292 that I posted last night. Healy was mentioned, but WNBC never confirmed Official 4 to be Healy, but mentioned "questions" surrounding Healy. They carefully worded their report to avoid a libel suit.

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The video link on News 4 didn't have the Healy part. I swear I saw it. Can anyone else confirm?

Maybe they ran that on rumors and took that part of the newscast down. I don't want it to appear I'm spreading rumors.

Quote:

C'mon Fulop and Levin; find a way to work together.

Your moments are fast approaching.

Quote:


"shocking and dismaying"?

"we have always conducted honest and open government"

"We are saddened by the negative light this has cast on our city"



Is he friggin' kidding? Jerry, you drunk SOB, you've done as much as anyone to cast a negative light on this city. Jerry, c'mon, you should know that the first step to recovery is to admit there is a problem.

What a total nose-bleed this guy is.

NBC News Last night confirmed that #4 was Healy. I'll try to find a video link.
The Today show this morning said the Feds expect more people to turn themselves in today.

As found on NJ.com

= Later in the day, Vega's attorney, Christopher Patella, said of the charge that his client accepted $30,000 for favors: "My client is totally innocent and we look forward to our day in court. He believes in his innocence; I believe in his innocence and his family is standing beside him."

From today's JJ:

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freedom wrote:
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Icechute wrote:
Quote:
Very interesting... wonder how much of this scandal is reflected in how easily the whole PADNA zoning was allowed to fall apart?[/quote]


Was anyone at these city council meetings for PHAD and historic designation right before Healys first election? I was there and i remember when it came time for Healy to vote he said in these exact words ("I dont know how this is going to work, but i vote yes.) how did he already know it's not going to work? obviously he was already in the developers(Lloyd Goldmans) pocket. As a result the developer now has his own personal zoning excluding him from all PHAD restrictions. This vote is on video somewhere. I hope the FBI is curious enough to look into this because i think this is where the corruption relly kicked in for Healy, Vega, and many others directly involved in this subject.

Here's a story from Bloomberg about the informant:


Dwek Laundered $3 Million in FBI Sweep Ensnaring Hoboken Mayor

July 24 (Bloomberg) -- Solomon Dwek bribed a politician, arranged to buy a kidney and tried to hide assets from creditors in a bankruptcy -- all with the blessing of prosecutors.

Dwek, a real-estate developer from Deal, New Jersey, who was charged with bank fraud in 2006, is the ?CW? -- cooperating witness -- in criminal complaints against 44 people arrested yesterday in a corruption and money-laundering case, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The 36-year-old?s undercover work in political and religious communities in New Jersey and New York makes Dwek the main link between the three mayors, two state assemblymen, five rabbis and one alleged human organ dealer taken into custody in the sweep, these people said.

?How could one guy bring down so many people?? said Charles Stanziale, a Newark-based trustee liquidating Dwek?s property in a personal bankruptcy. ?Well, if you stay with it and you?re working full time, one guy gets to meet another guy and it?s like a chain.?

Stanziale, a lawyer with McCarter & English, isn?t involved in the criminal probe, he said in an interview. Dwek?s lawyer, Michael Himmel, didn?t return a call seeking comment. Dwek couldn?t be reached.

The roundup of suspects was one of the largest ever in New Jersey, where more than 100 public officials have been convicted of corruption since 2001.

Under the direction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the cooperating witness laundered $3 million through the rabbis and their charitable organizations and paid bribes to public officials, prosecutors said. Investigators made hundreds of hours of audio and video recordings of illicit transactions, according to the government lawyers.

Bradley Beach

?This case uncovered a web of corruption that spanned the state,? said Weysan Dun, special agent in charge of the FBI office in Newark. ?All of the individuals were connected through their illicit activities with the undercover witness.?

The Syrian Jewish community, of which Dwek is a member, figures prominently in Dwek?s undercover dealings, according to the people with knowledge of the case. After migrating to Manhattan in the early 1900s from the cities of Aleppo and Damascus, many Jews from Syria moved to Brooklyn in the 1920s, according to Walter P. Zenner, who wrote about them in ?A Community of Many Worlds.? By the 1950s, they had begun summering along the shore in the town of Bradley Beach, according to the town?s Web site. Many later moved three miles up the beach to the wealthier town of Deal, Zenner wrote.

?Polycystic Disease?

Dwek?s father, Isaac, is a rabbi at the Synagogue of Deal. The younger Dwek was vice president of the Deal Yeshiva in West Long Branch, New Jersey.

Those community ties may have allowed him to build trust among people he would eventually help the government charge and arrest, according to Stanziale.

In February 2008, the cooperating witness in the case traveled from Tinton Falls, five miles (8 kilometers) east of the 139-year-old Monmouth Park racetrack, to Brooklyn with a person posing as his secretary to visit Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, according to the criminal complaint against Rosenbaum. The complaint said Rosenbaum, 58, was told the secretary?s uncle had polycystic disease, was on dialysis and wanted to secure a new kidney in a faster time frame than the legal transplant waiting list would allow.

?He needs to, uh, you know, organize to buy one and, uh, you know, we need to find, uh, how we can do this,? the CW said to Rosenbaum, according to the document.

$22.8 Million

It said Rosenbaum offered to find a donor from Israel, for $160,000, with 50 percent paid up front, and accepted a $10,000 deposit. No kidney actually changed hands, prosecutors said.

Rosenbaum?s attorney, Alan Vinegrad, didn?t return a call seeking comment. Lawyers for the other suspects either couldn?t be identified or couldn?t be reached.

Dwek?s path to government witness may have begun in 2006, when he deposited two $25 million checks against an account with a zero balance, prosecutors alleged at the time. Dwek then wired $22.8 million out of the bank, which was owned by PNC Financial Services Group Inc., falsely assuring officials that he would forward funds to cover the overdraft, according to authorities.

Never indicted, Dwek received 17 extensions from a judge to delay presentation of his case to a federal grand jury.

PNC, based in Pittsburgh, and two other lenders filed an involuntary liquidation petition on Feb. 9, 2007, that forced Dwek into Chapter 7 bankruptcy. He owes PNC about $22.9 million, Washington Mutual Inc. $22.7 million and Four Star Builders $58,388, according to court records.

?I Can Live?

The bankruptcy was converted to a Chapter 11 reorganization under a trustee?s supervision in Trenton, with Dwek?s consent.

In June 2007, the FBI?s cooperating witness set up a meeting with Edmond Nahum, the principal rabbi of Deal Synagogue in the oceanfront getaway for metropolitan New York?s Sephardic Jewish community, the criminal complaint said.

The CW told Nahum, 56, that he was seeking to hide assets from creditors in his bankruptcy so ?this way I can live,? according to complaints against Nahum and Saul Kassin, 87, chief rabbi of Sharee Zion, a synagogue on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn.

Nahum received checks in amounts up to $50,000 made out to Kassin?s charity, agreeing that Kassin would write checks to the cooperating witness, minus a 5 to 10 percent service charge, the complaints said. Those checks would be made out to a second Jewish foundation, run by Eliahu Ben Haim, the rabbi of a Deal synagogue called Congregation Ohel Yaacob, and Ben Haim would pay the money to the CW in cash, the government said.

?Cash is Green?

Ben Haim, 58, was an investor in Dwek?s real estate business, according to bankruptcy court documents. Haim is a defendant in an asset recovery lawsuit filed by Stanziale to recover funds the lawyer said are fictitious profits from a real estate investment scam that the suit alleges Dwek ran.

The cooperating witness met with Republican Assemblyman Daniel M. Van Pelt, 44, of Ocean County, saying he wanted to ensure real estate developments he was planning in coastal areas got appropriate permits from the state Department of Environmental Protection, according to charges against Van Pelt. The lawmaker accepted $10,000 in cash from the CW, who said he was a member of the ?green party,? not a Republican or Democrat, prosecutors allege.

?Green is cash,? the complaint quotes the CW as saying.

In May, when Peter Cammarano, a Democrat running for mayor of Hoboken, was short on cash, the CW gave the candidate $10,000 from the trunk of his car in exchange for a promise to expedite approvals of developments in Hoboken, the complaint said.

?Tragic Day?

?We?re going to be friends for a good long time,? Cammarano, 32, told the cooperating witness on June 23, according to the complaint. It said the CW promised to help cover a shortfall in the campaign with $10,000.

Also arrested yesterday was the mayor of Ridgefield, New Jersey, Anthony Suarez, 42; the mayor of Secaucus, New Jersey, Dennis Elwell, 64; Jersey City Council President Mariano Vega Jr., 59; and Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith, a Jersey City Democrat.

FBI agents searched the house of Joseph Doria, a former Democratic assemblyman who is now commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs. He wasn?t charged.

?This is obviously just another really tragic day for the people of New Jersey,? said Christopher Christie, the Republican candidate for New Jersey governor and the former U.S. Attorney under whom the criminal probe began. The case was continued under acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra.

The arrests could have an effect on the gubernatorial race, according to Brigid Harrison, professor of political science and law at New Jersey?s Montclair State University.

The Fallout

Governor Jon Corzine, a Democrat, trails Christie in polls by eight percentage points among likely voters, according to a Monmouth University-Gannett New Jersey poll conducted the week of July 16. Corzine, who described yesterday?s charges as ?simply outrageous and cannot be tolerated,? asked Doria to resign from the Department of Community Affairs.

?We?re seeing that fallout, with the governor asking the cabinet member he appointed to resign,? Harrison said. ?This problem of corruption has been one that Republicans have tried for years to make hay with. This is, in my mind, one more sweep they will use.?

At least six members of the 80-seat Assembly have been charged with or convicted of crimes in the past two years.

The arrests came the day before former state Sen. Wayne Bryant, a Democrat from Camden County, was scheduled to be sentenced for using state budget grants to win public jobs designed to inflate his state pension. He was convicted in November.

His hearing is set for this morning at 10 a.m.

To contact the reporter on this story: Oshrat Carmiel in New York at ocarmiel1@bloomberg.net. Pat Wechsler in New York at pwechsler@bloomberg.net Dunstan McNichol in New York at dmcnichol@bloomberg.net

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Hey, the same thing (same words, too) happened to me at the office of the construction code. They asked for $600 beforehand, $600 after inspection to get everything done. I pretended not to understand and just kept visiting the office every day for three weeks until I got a permit without bribing. Wasted a month. Frustrating as hell. I can't believe this happens in the First World.

I think it's time for Bravo to swoop into Deal and start the next season of The Real Housewives of NJ with the Rabbi's wives with their cheetah robes.

I am sure many of us living here have stories and experiences of corruption related to the City.

I hope there is a reporter out there looking for a good story who is willing to talk to us all now. I am sure we are all now willing to spill to someone wanting to listen - the city has gotten away with this for too, too long and ruined many lives with small financial - to large financial burdens based on their fraud and approval of shoddy construction....

Just the other day someone told me about how a city inspector wasn't coming around to their place to approve it and it was an oddly long time, then a "friend" of the inspector's approached them and said that for a fee of around $1500 he's sure he could get his "friend" to expedite the inspection process. EXPEDITE? More like this inspector was intentionally delaying to get the pay off. These people never did it but are extremely distressed because they still have no inspector coming and now of course that they didn't take the bribe, you think this inspector is going to make things easy on them?

HEY REPORTERS start your research! Citizen's should not be tolerating this corruption. I don't care if this is small, it's illegal and has ruined many lives in smaller ways.

Posted on: 2009/7/24 12:03

Red-Deutsch	Re: Several local politicians arrested on corruption charges	#150
Just can't stay away Joined: 2008/10/6 1:20 Last Login : 2011/9/22 22:53 Group: Registered Users Posts: 88	Quote: So, (1) Willthis turn the DiNardo funeral into a media circus? I hope not. (2) What pols would/could even attend? (3) What will Judge Gallipoli do with Jimmy King's suit of Nidia Lopez? He needs a plaintiff, and King priorities have quite shifted... . No, not so far, at least - thank goodness. The wake was not a circus at all. It was incredibly respectful and somber. The line to get into the front door stretched from Kennedy to Summit (on Pavonia) at one point (about 1 hour, 45 minute wait), and although there were hundreds and hundreds of people on line, you could pretty much hear a pin drop. Media was across the street, filming and taking photos only sporadically and in about as respectful a manner as possible in such a situation. As far as who showed up (politically), a friend I was with had an eagle eye. He spotted Prosecutor DiFazio and a few of our Council members who have not been implicated in this whole thing, specifically Mr. Sottolano and Ms. Richardson. I saw an interview with Ms. Flood on TV later in the day, so she was there too. We saw Chief Comey going in as well. We were there fairly early, so it's quite possible other pols attended later in the day. Although we did not see Mayor Healy at the time we were there, I saw photos that he did indeed attend at some point. I believe I read that King's suit will continue, at least for the time being. Hope some of this helps. IMO, everything went off in an extremely dignified manner yesterday. Hopefully things will follow suit today, and I'm pretty confident they will. Thank goodness this has remained separate from all the other stuff going on at the moment. Posted on: 2009/7/24 11:54

Slacky	Re: Several local politicians arrested on corruption charges	#149
Just can't stay away Joined: 2007/7/22 14:29 Last Login : 2010/9/2 6:41 Group: Banned Posts: 108	Wow, if anyone doubts how big this story is its the second lead article on the BBC site - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8165607.stm Posted on: 2009/7/24 10:50

linky	Re: Several local politicians arrested on corruption charges	#148
Home away from home Joined: 2007/6/20 16:54 Last Login : 2019/8/9 20:03 Group: Registered Users Posts: 436	Quote: RiverRat wrote: Quote: 81905 wrote: Scum! But seriously, are any of us surprised? Some things never change. This article is from 1889. http://tinyurl.com/krasqm That's a fascinating article! And makes me wonder if the "Journal" in question is the same poor Jersey Journal that we are saddled with today. Do they still make most of their money from the tax sale advertisements? Without real investigative journalism the rats will crawl right back into city hall as soon as the FBI lights get turned off. I admit that this city could do with a real newspaper to investigate these clowns, but the real problem lies with the voters. Don't forget the ridiculously small percentage of people who actually went to the polls in the last mayoral election. I have never maintained that the people of JC chose Mayoral Healy or the rest of his "team" on the council. Rather, we've got what we have in city hall because the vast majority of the people in this city don't care. But you can be damn sure that the people whose jobs and connectiions depend on this administration made it their business to go to the polls. Posted on: 2009/7/24 10:47

T-Bird	Re: Several local politicians arrested on corruption charges	#147
Home away from home Joined: 2008/10/19 1:18 Last Login : 2020/9/25 20:40 From somewhere else Group: Registered Users Posts: 1609	King's lawyer was quoted today saying that they will continue to pursue their case. alanwright wrote: Quote: What will Judge Gallipoli do with Jimmy King's suit of Nidia Lopez? He needs a plaintiff, and King priorities have quite shifted... Posted on: 2009/7/24 6:06

rk666	Re: Several local politicians arrested on corruption charges	#146
Newbie Joined: 2006/8/9 14:23 Last Login : 2009/7/24 5:54 Group: Registered Users Posts: 1	UP NEXT - Not-So-Superintendent Charles T. Epps and his shady trips to London, full-time driver and other such rip-offery. A teacher working in Jersey City for 6 years makes $45,000, giv or take. How much Do the suits at Claremont Ave. pull in? MUCH more. Burnt it all. Posted on: 2009/7/24 5:57

alanwright	Re: Several local politicians arrested on corruption charges	#145
Home away from home Joined: 2007/3/4 23:35 Last Login : 2011/10/2 20:19 Group: Registered Users Posts: 531	Quote: SonOfPizzazz wrote: Did you hear about it in that country via local news, or did friends back home let you know? I heard this went pretty far. My flight was on the runway at 815 when the OP posted. When I landed, I had several text mags and emails waiting about it. And other NJers and family here knew from CNN or radio. Most are from Hudson, Essex, Bergen, Passaic and so they're pretty attuned to corruption cases. So, (1) Willthis turn the DiNardo funeral into a media circus? I hope not. (2) What pols would/could even attend? (3) What will Judge Gallipoli do with Jimmy King's suit of Nidia Lopez? He needs a plaintiff, and King priorities have quite shifted... (4) it's high time Judge Debevoise or Chesler in Newark take the reigns of the Party from local and county leaders. Unions have had their leadership seized under similar circumstances, though that would have NLRB implications as well as associational issues. Posted on: 2009/7/24 5:41