Christie for Guv’

When a true-blue state like New Jersey gives its GOP governor Chris Christie a 67% favorability rating, it should come as no surprise that he recently decided to announce his bid for re-election to a second term.
 
Indeed, it is wholly consistent with Christie’s prior statements about his desire to remain here in The Garden State, and to see through as many of his priorities and goals as he can possibly implement. 
 
Earlier this year, despite all of the media attention about the possibility of his angling for the VP spot on the national presidential GOP ticket, Christie steadily refuted all claims to that effect
 
He was completely adamant and sincere about his statements that he is a Jersey Boy, that he loved his job and his state, and that he wanted to stay on the job right here.  I liked that attitude and still do.

Israel: Here to Stay

Why is it, I often wonder, that the rest of the world seems to get its nose bent out of shape whenever Israel moves to defend itself against unprovoked military or terrorist attacks as they rain down upon its citizenry and its sovereign territory?
 
Some of the answer lies in the fact that most Arab nations of the Middle East have not accepted the presence of Jews in their midst ever since Israel was established in 1948.
 
Yet, the concept of the eventual re-establishment of a nation for Jewish people in the land of their ancestors is not new – the Palestine region was being considered as a homeland for Jewish people at the time of the Balfour Declaration in 1917, long before the establishment of Israeli statehood.  The European Holocaust of World War II only accelerated the process.

The Heat and Lights are Returning to Bridgewater

Late this morning, Jim, a customer service representative from JCP&L, said that prior to the latest weather blast in the form of last night’s visit from Athena-the-nor’easter, “it looked like by Friday at midnight,”  [tomorrow] power would be restored to all customers in Bridgewater, where many households were still out of power.
 
But as of 11:09 this morning, however, Jim wasn’t as confident because of the need to assess the current condition of the double whammy from Sandy and Athena. 
 
He said that the “crews were still out there” in Bridgewater this morning, but that there was a “possibility that they could be moved around”  [outside of Bridgewater], and that he “didn’t know specifically” whether or not the crews would remain.
 
Hang in there.  The cities are up and running.  See all of the white on JCP&L’s outage map.  Perhaps now, crews will concentrate on an ‘edge city’ like Bridgewater.
 
The telephone number for JCP&L is 800-662-3115.
 

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UPDATE AS OF 3:33 PM today:  After this long blackout, power finally has been restored at our home in Bridgewater.  It will take the weekend for us to get everything back up and running inside the house and to clean up the mess.

JCP&L to Send out Estimated Bills

A giant falls to Hurricane Sandy. (Bergeron Image.)

In a conversation this afternoon with a customer service representative from Jersey Central Power and Light (a subsidiary of www.firstenergycorp.com), I was advised that the remaining power outages in Bridgewater will  be restored no later than by the end of the day on Sunday, November 11^th.
 
But no guarantees were forthcoming.
 
When asked about obtaining credit for the days during which JCP&L customers in Bridgewater lost power, the customer rep said that there is a “99% chance” that estimated bills will be sent out, and that they will be based upon either the previous month’s bill, or that of last year for the same billing period.
 
Additionally, I was told that customers will need to call JCP&L for an adjustment if the estimated  bill appears to be too high.  No other information was provided during that call concerning an automatic billing adjustment following the next meter reading.
 
The telephone number for JCP&L is 800-662-3115. 

Bridgewater School Board Elections.

Breslin and Cullen Deserve Another Term.  Petrozelli?  Not so Fast. 
 

Sample School Board Ballot

Tuesday’s school board elections should have taken place in April, as they always have. 
 
Had that happened with no other moves by Bridgewater and Raritan’s Board of Education, those elections would have provided you with an up or down vote on the Bridgewater-Raritan School Budget, in addition to your having the ability to choose three board members.
 
However, this is no longer possible.  Earlier this year, five school board members – including incumbent Daniel Petrozelli – successfully initiated a resolution to take away the public’s right to vote on the Bridgewater-Raritan School Budget.  That was not necessary under New Jersey law. 
 
Petrozelli was appointed to the BR-BOE in an open public meeting from a field of many other candidates.  The board interviewed each candidate in an open public meeting and discussed each of their qualifications.