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Remember that Dickinson H.S. teen who ordered a brand new BMW from a Bergen County car dealership which delivered to the high school. Anything goes today.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/teens-scam-nets-123000-car/

The story about the teenager that made his way to the *top* of the building is just proof that the "security" deployed everywhere nowadays is simply theater for the masses. Any person with a modicum of intelligence can figure out ways to gain access to many "secured" places. The biggest joke is probably the airport security checkpoints where they inspect your boarding passes.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... _center.html#incart_river
Weehawken teen dodges security, sneaks to top of 1 World Trade Center

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Chasing NJ, no friend of the Port Authority, said there were a dozen protestors, which is less than half as many Knick fans who showed up to protest at MSG about the way the Dolan family runs the team.

But I do agree that the bi-partisan Port Authority, corrupted by both Democrats and Republicans over the years, needs to be completely rehabbed.

When you have the Democrats pushing huge construction projects to benefit unions at 'prevailing wages', and Republicans supporting the firms doing the building, you get a critical mass of overpriced and unsustainable waste.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2014 ... ge_at_newark_airport.html
Port Authority commissioner calls for 'living wage' at Newark airport

Jersey Journal article on the protests.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... port_authority_chair.html

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May they forever be condemned to riding the path early Sunday mornings

There's a pretty healthy group yelling "Resignation! Now!"

It's pretty awesome, kudos to them!

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The News4 truck was waiting there this morning. So was the PAPD.

The chicken are coming to roast for Mr Samson head of Pork Authority. When the dust settles his entire pension should be devoted to public transportation fair relief.

Source, NyTimes.

"Federal prosecutors in New Jersey subpoenaed records last week relating to potential conflicts of interest involving the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey chairman, David Samson, focusing on two bridge contracts worth $2.8 billion that he voted to award to construction companies represented by his law firm, according to people briefed on the matter.
The subpoena was issued to the Port Authority sometime last week by the United States attorney?s office in New Jersey, which along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been examining the George Washington Bridge lane closings in September and other accusations of wrongdoing by current and former aides, appointees and associates of Gov. Chris Christie, the people said.
The interest in Mr. Samson represents a significant widening of the scandal that has grown out of the closing of two bridge access lanes in Fort Lee, N.J., which emails between aides to Mr. Christie suggest were politically motivated against the borough?s mayor, Mark Sokolich, who had declined the Christie campaign?s entreaties to endorse the governor.
The grand jury subpoena came just days after the United States attorney?s office in Manhattan issued a similar subpoena to the Port Authority on March 7, and then, in an unusual move, withdrew it the following Monday. The reasons for the withdrawal were unclear, but it could indicate a lack of communication between the two federal prosecutors? offices, whose investigations sometimes overlap, or some other misstep.
Officials in both offices declined to publicly discuss the brief overlap and privately sought to play down the significance of the move.
But people familiar with the contents of both subpoenas and some of the recent communications between the two offices indicated that despite the withdrawal by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, there was still significant investigative interest in Mr. Samson and his firm, Wolff & Samson.
The inquiry, those people said, would focus on the potential conflicts between his public actions as the authority?s chairman and his private law firm?s representation of companies doing business with it; it would be handled by the United States attorney?s office in New Jersey, which is headed by Paul J. Fishman.
The new subpoena focused on the awarding of two bridge contracts last April, one for $1.5 billion to replace and maintain the Goethals Bridge, and the other for $1.3 billion to raise the Bayonne Bridge so that the largest container ships could pass beneath it.
Mr. Samson?s lawyer, Michael Chertoff, declined to discuss the subpoena, saying through a spokeswoman, ?We are not commenting on any investigations.?

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This is par for the course for the Port Authority. They always arrange their meetings at the most inconvenient times to discourage the public from getting involved.

Noon on a weekday? Greeeeeeeeeeeeeat

Silverstein has been brilliant in his handling of this whole thing. He's used public money to build two huge buildings - 7 WTC is his, too - while putting up very little of his own. And now he's got a 1/3-finished building to use as leverage; it's not like the PA is going to let him walk away and leave it to rust.

It's crazy for the PA to give more loan guarantees, but that is one smart guy.

Maybe this is a good place to add this to the mix
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/17/nyr ... ?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0
Anyone else think this is insane - more money from the PA to subsidize a Manhattan developer's vanity, when PATH is clearly desperately underfunded?

Wednesday March 19 at NOON
2 Montgomery Street: Jersey City, NJ

https://www.facebook.com/events/598032 ... notif_t=plan_user_invited

So maybe if this story told us where in Jersey City the PA meeting will be held this might be considered helpful. No?

Protests planned for Port Authority meeting in Jersey City

By Jenna Portnoy/The Star-Ledger
March 17, 2014 at 4:31 PM

TRENTON ? Protesters will descend on Jersey City on Wednesday for a meeting of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to demand that the embattled chairman, David Samson, resign.

New Jersey Working Families Alliance also recently filed a formal complaint with the state Ethics Commission against Samson, who has been accused of using the powerful public appointment to enrich his law firm, Wolff & Samson.

Samson has apologized on behalf of the Port Authority for the huge traffic jam triggered by lane closings on the George Washington Bridge last September, and has received a vote of confidence from fellow New Jersey commissioners. Gov. Chris Christie appointed Samson, a close adviser and head of his transition team, to the Port Authority in late 2010.

Working Families Alliance was also one of the organizers of an attention-grabbing protest of Christie?s town hall meeting in Mount Laurel last week.

?Christie rose to national fame by shouting down teachers and mocking ordinary citizens at town hall meetings. Now, with his administration mired in scandals and his poll numbers plummeting, he can?t take his own medicine,? the director of the alliance, Analilia Mejia said in a statement. ?Working families everywhere are outraged by the pattern of abuse and cronyism that has come to light since Bridgegate.?

Christie has two town halls this week: Tuesday?s event at St. Mary Community Center in South River will focus on Hurricane Sandy recovery and Thursday?s event at St. Magdalen de Pazzi Parish Center in Flemington will focus on budget issues.

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/ ... eting_in_jersey_city.html