Residents in New Jersey and New York Still Recovering Following Hurricane Ida (VIDEO)

Following-up, "New Jersey. God Have Mercy."

New Jersey. God Have Mercy

No matter your politics, this story is heart-wrenching.

At NYT, "New Jersey’s Stunning Storm Toll Includes Many Who Drowned in Cars":

Malathi Kanche was heading home after dropping her son off at college Wednesday evening when the small S.U.V. she was driving was overwhelmed by floodwaters set off by the remnants of Hurricane Ida.

With the vehicle stalled in waist-deep water on Route 22 in Bridgewater, N.J., she and her 15-year-old daughter climbed out. They clung to a tree as the torrent rushed past, according to a close family friend and neighbor, Mansi Mago.

Then the tree gave way, and “the water took her,” said Ms. Mago, recounting what another stranded motorist told her hours later.

A 46-year-old software designer who emigrated from India, Ms. Kanche was one of six people who were still missing two days after Ida caused the deaths of at least 25 people in New Jersey — more fatalities than in any other state — as the monster storm whipped its way onto the Gulf Coast and tore north to New England.

At least a third of the fatalities in New Jersey were people who drowned after being trapped in vehicles in a densely packed state known for its car culture, its tangle of highways, suburban commuter towns and limited public transportation.

Screeching alerts had sounded repeatedly on cellphones late Wednesday, warning people to stay inside, but no travel bans were put in place in New Jersey or New York, where 16 deaths — including 13 in New York City — have been linked to the storm. On Friday, in an acknowledgment of the growing risk of flash flooding as climate change unleashes increasingly intense storms, New York City’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, announced that the city would increase its use of evacuation orders and travel bans.

In New Jersey, officials have not said whether they would apply new measures to protect the state given the likelihood of severe storms happening more frequently.

As the region faced the daunting task of cleaning and clearing debris, Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey and Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York both said that they were expecting large infusions of recovery aid from the federal government. President Biden was expected to soon declare the states a federal disaster area.

Mr. Murphy, speaking from Millburn, whose downtown commercial corridor had been ravaged by the rain, said the state would make $10 million in aid available to small businesses. “If you’ve been crushed and you can prove it, you’re eligible,” Mr. Murphy said.

Early Friday, Mr. Murphy was still warning people to remain off the roads, especially near waterways that had not yet crested.

“Many motorists have been caught by surprise that the depth of the water on a road that they thought they knew — not to mention the swiftness of the current,” Mr. Murphy said.

“You can easily be swept away or trapped,” he said. “And sadly, we have many examples of just that.”

The stories of devastation and death were tempered by the many tales of rescue in New Jersey, where the National Weather Service said three tornadoes also touched down during the storm, leveling homes in South Jersey but killing no one.

In South Plainfield, N.J., a 31-year-old man, Danush Reddy, lost his footing as he was walking alongside a flooded roadway and was swept into a 36-inch-wide sewer pipe, borough officials said. His body was found miles away...

Police found Ms. Kanche's body on Friday.  

Keep reading.

 

The Legacy of Housing Discrimination (VIDEO)

This segment below, from "CBS This Morning," is really well-done --- and troubling.

I mean, there's so much leftist anger and hatred over "racism" and "white supremacy," which nowadays neither is anywhere near the "devastating" levels idiot leftist-Dems want "the rubes" to believe. 

But if you honestly go back to the 1950s and 1960s, you do see patterns or real racial discrimination, and this segment is particularly interesting, as "CBS This Morning" co-host Tony Dokoupil's grandfather settled in the suburb of Lyndhurst, New Jersey, and at the video, Dokoupil conducts a set of generally decent, and not "blame-casting," interviews, discussing the phenomenon of racial "redlining," which back in the day, kept black families from being able to buy homes, and thus build generational wealth.  

It's well-done:

Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino Implosion (VIDEO)

You'd think this would have been big national news, at least ahead of time, but Trump's Atlantic City hotel and casino was blown to bits this morning, it turns out. 

And NYT does have it, and the reporters were no doubt giddy as they pushed the publish button.

See, "Watch the Trump Era in Atlantic City End With 3,000 Sticks of Dynamite":

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — It was not the biggest or the best implosion ever.

An auction for the right to detonate the dynamite to begin the implosion of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, N.J., fizzled.

Front-row seats to view Wednesday morning’s spectacle were sold on the cheap. Onlookers in cars hoping to witness the symbolic finale of the former president’s casino empire in the seaside resort city were charged $10 and herded into a lot most recently used as a pandemic-era food distribution site.

The implosion of what was once the premier gaming destination in Atlantic City came less than a month after its best-known former owner, Donald J. Trump, left the White House after losing re-election and became the first president in history to be impeached twice. He was acquitted on Saturday of inciting the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.

The tower came down shortly after 9 a.m. amid a huge cloud of dust and an eruption of cheers.

“It’s an end of a not-so-great era,” said Jennifer Owen, 50, who bid $575 to win a front-row seat at a V.I.P. breakfast in an oceanfront pavilion with a direct view of the implosion...

This Ms. Owen must've been a "Never Trumper." She paid $575 to watch? Pfft. It's obviously not that exciting, but Trump haters gonna hate, and watching a Trump property come crumbling down could be replacement therapy after the former president was acquitted during his "snap" impeachment ordeal on Capitl Hill last week.

Literally Unhinged Mother in Paterson, New Jersey, Arrested After Smashing Car Windows with Children Inside (VIDEO)

I'm watching the video, on Twitter, thinking wtf?!! I would've been out of that car in a second smashing that crazy woman with anything I could get my hands on!

She's literally about to kill someone, dang.

Turns out it was a domestic dispute, and the children's father, who was inside as well, called the police.

At the Bergen County Record, "Paterson mom charged with taking hammer to car with kids inside."

Chris Christie Missed the Cut for GOP Debate in South Carolina Saturday (VIDEO)

Background at Politico, "Kasich, Christie and Fiorina need strong N.H. finishes to make CBS debate."

At the Newark Star-Ledger, "Christie's presidential bid is over, political pros say":

TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie is still waiting to exhale, but Republican experts are saying the New Jersey governor is all but certain to end his presidential campaign in New Jersey sometime Wednesday.

"We're going to go home to New Jersey tomorrow and take a deep breath," Christie told supporters in Nashua, N.H., late Tuesday evening after the New Hampshire presidential primary.

The goal, Christie said, is to "see what the final results are tonight — 'cause that matters — whether we're sixth or fifth."

A sixth-place finish would mean Christie wouldn't qualify for the ninth GOP debate, scheduled for Saturday in South Carolina under criteria for admission CBS released late Tuesday. He needed to be in the top five in New Hampshire...

More.

Fiorina won't make it either. And she's gonna whine about sexist treatment by CBS. (Ben Carson won't make it either. These dum-dums need to drop out, sheesh.)

Also at Memeorandum.

'Whole Child' Approach to Learning Divides Families in New Jersey School District

The "whole child" approach is a way to reduce standards, which would help some students be less stressed and more successful. Interestingly, it's the parents of white children who're protesting. Asian parents are going for it, however.

At the New York Times, "New Jersey School District Eases Pressure on Students, Baring an Ethnic Divide":

This fall, David Aderhold, the superintendent of a high-achieving school district near Princeton, N.J., sent parents an alarming 16-page letter.

The school district, he said, was facing a crisis. Its students were overburdened and stressed out, juggling too much work and too many demands.

In the previous school year, 120 middle and high school students were recommended for mental health assessments; 40 were hospitalized. And on a survey administered by the district, students wrote things like, “I hate going to school,” and “Coming out of 12 years in this district, I have learned one thing: that a grade, a percentage or even a point is to be valued over anything else.”

With his letter, Dr. Aderhold inserted West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District into a national discussion about the intense focus on achievement at elite schools, and whether it has gone too far.

At follow-up meetings, he urged parents to join him in advocating a holistic, “whole child” approach to schooling that respects “social-emotional development” and “deep and meaningful learning” over academics alone. The alternative, he suggested, was to face the prospect of becoming another Palo Alto, Calif., where outsize stress on teenage students is believed to have contributed to two clusters of suicides in the last six years.

But instead of bringing families together, Dr. Aderhold’s letter revealed a fissure in the district, which has 9,700 students, and one that broke down roughly along racial lines. On one side are white parents like Catherine Foley, a former president of the Parent Teacher Student Association at her daughter’s middle school, who has come to see the district’s increasingly pressured atmosphere as antithetical to learning.

“My son was in fourth grade and told me, ‘I’m not going to amount to anything because I have nothing to put on my résumé,’ ” Ms. Foley said.

On the other side are parents like Mike Jia, one of the thousands of Asian-American professionals who have moved to the district in the past decade, who said Dr. Aderhold’s reforms would amount to a “dumbing down” of his children’s education.

“What is happening here reflects a national anti-intellectual trend that will not prepare our children for the future,” Mr. Jia said.

About 10 minutes from Princeton and an hour and a half from New York City, West Windsor and Plainsboro have become popular bedroom communities for technology entrepreneurs, pharmaceutical researchers and engineers, drawn in large part by the public schools. From the last three graduating classes, 16 seniors were admitted to M.I.T. It churns out Science Olympiad winners, classically trained musicians and students with perfect SAT scores.

The district has become increasingly popular with immigrant families from China, India and Korea. This year, 65 percent of its students are Asian-American, compared with 44 percent in 2007. Many of them are the first in their families born in the United States.

They have had a growing influence on the district. Asian-American parents are enthusiastic supporters of the competitive instrumental music program. They have been huge supporters of the district’s advanced mathematics program, which once began in the fourth grade but will now start in the sixth. The change to the program, in which 90 percent of the participating students are Asian-American, is one of Dr. Aderhold’s reforms.

Asian-American students have been avid participants in a state program that permits them to take summer classes off campus for high school credit, allowing them to maximize the number of honors and Advanced Placement classes they can take, another practice that Dr. Aderhold is limiting this school year.

With many Asian-American children attending supplemental instructional programs, there is a perception among some white families that the elementary school curriculum is being sped up to accommodate them.

Both Asian-American and white families say the tension between the two groups has grown steadily over the past few years, as the number of Asian families has risen. But the division has become more obvious in recent months as Dr. Aderhold has made changes, including no-homework nights, an end to high school midterms and finals, and a “right to squeak” initiative that made it easier to participate in the music program.

At a packed meeting of the school district’s Board of Education held shortly before the winter break, a middle school cafeteria was filled with parents, with Asian-Americans sitting on one side and white families on the other. Some parents and students described rampant cheating, grade fixation and days so stressful that some students could not wait for them to end. But other parents, primarily Asian-American ones, described a different picture, one in which their values were being ignored...

100-Year-Old Man in New Jersey Killed Wife with Ax Before Committing Suicide

Man, that's harsh.

At the New York Times, "New Jersey Centenarian Killed Wife With Ax Before Committing Suicide, Police Say."

New Jersey High School Student Slams 62-Year-Old Teacher to Floor Over Cellphone

It's something that I would never do (confiscating a phone), since a student's phone is private property. But that said, this is absolutely over the top.

At the Paterson Record/Herald News, "Paterson freshman charged with assault after classroom attack on teacher."

Here's the video, "STUDENT SLAMS TEACHER FOR TAKING HIS PHONE AWAY" (via Weasel Zippers).

Note that's a black student. He'd be right at home with the Ferguson looting mobs.

Stephen Hayes on Condi Rice Protests: 'It's really a pathetic statement about the state of higher learning in America today...'

He's really animated.

And remember, the radical left has brought about this state of affairs:



PREVIOUSLY: "#LiberalRacism: Condoleezza Rice Bullied Out of Rutgers Commencement."

#LiberalRacism: Condoleezza Rice Bullied Out of Rutgers Commencement

Another day, another vile liberal racist eruption of hate.

At Newark's Star-Ledger, "Condoleezza Rice pulls out of giving Rutgers commencement speech":

Racist liberal students at @RutgersU win. RT @NROcorner: EXCLUSIVE: Rice Withdraws from Rutgers Commencement http://t.co/nF8OL8bUC4
— Marooned in Marin (@MaroonedInMarin) May 3, 2014

Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice backed out of giving Rutgers University's commencement speech today amid growing opposition among the school's students and faculty.

In a statement, Rice said she informed Rutgers President Robert Barchi that she has decided not to give the May 18 address.

“Commencement should be a time of joyous celebration for the graduates and their families. Rutgers' invitation to me to speak has become a distraction for the university community at this very special time," Rice said.

"I am honored to have served my country. I have defended America's belief in free speech and the exchange of ideas. These values are essential to the health of our democracy. But that is not what is at issue here," she said. "As a Professor for thirty years at Stanford University and as its former Provost and Chief academic officer, I understand and embrace the purpose of the commencement ceremony and I am simply unwilling to detract from it in any way."

Rice wished good luck to the Rutgers graduates.

About two hours later, Rutgers officials released their own statement.

"While Rutgers University stands fully behind the invitation to Dr. Rice to be our commencement speaker and receive an honorary degree, we respect the decision she made and clearly articulated in her statement this morning," Barchi said. "Now is the time to focus on our commencement, a day to celebrate the accomplishments and promising futures of our graduates. We look forward to joining them and their families on May 18, 2014."

Barchi said more details about the commencement will be announced in the coming days. Rutgers has two weeks to come up with a new commencement speaker.

Added: At Twitchy, "Brit Hume, others slam Rutgers mob’s ‘sickening’ shut-uppery of Condoleezza Rice."

Wonder how graduates of #Rutgers feel about pushing away an accomplished black woman? I thought progressives were supposed to be tolerant.
— Brian Wilson (@BrianWilsonDC) May 3, 2014

Added: From Robert Stacy McCain, "The Left’s Mob Rule on Campus."

A Messy Divorce for Chris Christie and MSNBC

I saw something on this earlier, at Politico, "Chris Christie aide slams MSNBC’s hurricane-fund ‘assault’."

And now over at the New York Times, "For Christie and MSNBC, a Messy Divorce Plays Out in Public View":

It was a match made in moderately minded Northeast Corridor heaven.

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey needed a TV network that would burnish his bipartisan bona fides and showcase his gleefully contrarian style. MSNBC craved a Republican who cut against the party grain and lit up the screen with his everyman-ish, Springsteen-loving spontaneity.

An on-air romance blossomed, forged over chummy strolls along the Jersey Shore and heart-to-hearts in the studio about everything from overeating to education, embodying the aisle-crossing aspirations of this partisan era.

Now, the improbable relationship between a governor with his eyes on the White House and a network determined to break into the top tier, up to now so beneficial to both, has curdled in a spectacularly public fashion.

Mr. Christie is confronting the worst crisis of his career, stemming from his aides’ role in shutting down approach lanes to the George Washington Bridge. The governor’s predicament is a ratings bonanza for MSNBC, whose left-leaning viewers are eating up every development in the sordid scandal.

Over the weekend, Mr. Christie, who has appeared on MSNBC many times since taking office, angrily denounced it as a “partisan network” that is “almost gleeful in their efforts attacking” him. Christie aides have called it a “feeding frenzy.”

“There is a difference between treating this matter seriously and seeking out the truth and irresponsibly using hearsay and conjecture without confirming the facts,” Colin Reed, a spokesman for Mr. Christie, said on Sunday. Feelings are frayed on both sides. Mika Brzezinski, a co-host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” who makes no secret of her affection for Mr. Christie, seemed taken aback by the governor’s harsh critique.

“I was a little surprised when he took a jab at us,” she said in an interview on Sunday.

“I don’t think it’s legitimate to say this is a partisan attack,” she added. “I think this is a very real story, with legs.”

Right.

Just like how Benghazi is a Republican witch hunt, or whatever the f-k it is they're saying over there. I rarely watch the network, it's so bad. As for Christie, he got in bed with them. Screw him. No one told him the MSNBC progs were playing him for the fool? Perhaps they did, but he got so full of himself --- and the national limelight as "the one" to overcome the partisan polarization --- he just couldn't help himself. It's gotta be a harsh wake-up call.

Photos Show Chris Christie With Port Authority's David Wildstein During Bridge-Closure Fiasco

The photos raised questions about Christie's veracity, and could be the other shoe dropping.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Christie, Official Who Arranged Bridge Closures Were Together During Fiasco":

Gov. Chris Christie was with the official who arranged the closure of local lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 11, 2013 — the third day of the closures, and well after they had triggered outrage from local officials beset by heavy traffic.

It isn’t known what, if anything, Mr. Christie discussed with David Wildstein that day, when the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey official was among the delegation of Mr. Christie’s representatives who welcomed him to the site of the World Trade Center for the commemoration of the 12th anniversary of the terrorist attacks there....

The photograph of the men together raised new questions about what the Christie administration knew about the lane closures and when, said Assemblyman John Wisniewski, the Democratic chair of the transportation committee that issued subpoenas over the lane closures.

“It buttressed the skepticism that many have had about his statement,” said Mr. Wisniewski, about when Mr. Christie learned of his aides’ involvement in the closures. “I can’t help but wonder what conversation took place between them.”

Continue reading.

Public Approval of Chris Christie Unmoved by Bridgegate Scandal

At Politico, "Poll: Chris Christie opinion unscathed."

And following the links takes us to Pew Research, "Christie Story Attracts Little Public Interest: Recent Opinions of New Jersey Governor Are Largely Unchanged."

Records Show Christie Administration Canceled Meetings After Jersey City Mayor Didn't Endorse

I never did blog this story because I was in the middle of lengthy troll rights blogging as it broke. I did watch the Christie press conference, or at least the main part of it. I went back to bed as the darned thing droned on for a couple of hours.

In any case, here's an update at WSJ, "Documents Back Up Jersey City Mayor's Claim that He Was Cut Off":

Documents released Monday indicate that meetings arranged between top commissioners to Gov. Chris Christie and Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop were abruptly canceled without reason last year—providing evidence of Mr. Fulop's claim that he was cut off after he decided not to endorse the governor.

The documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal through a public records request showed communications between Mr. Fulop and Christie administration staff members arranging the meetings in June and July, until the commissioners all canceled one meeting after another.

More at that top link (via Memeorandum).

ADDED: From the Other McCain, "The Christie GWB Scandal Bubble."

Wolf Blitzer Interviews Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich

Okay, I promised I'd come back with this clip. It's interesting:



ADDED: The full interview:

Obligatory Entry on Chris Christie Bridge Scandal

Look, I put on CNN around noon, since as previously noted I can't stand Shepard Smith. I normally turn it back over to Fox at 3:00pm, when the awesome Special Report with Bret Baier comes on. So it's been non-stop Chris Christie news for almost 3 hours now, especially on Jake Tapper's and now with Wolf Blitzer. Blitzer just had a pretty compelling interview with Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, who was the alleged target of retribution by Christie's office. Ima post that clip when it's uploaded to CNN's YouTube page.

Meanwhile, at the Bergen Record, "Fort Lee mayor: GWB emails reveal the 'venomous side of politics'."

Also, I had the Lonely Con at the sidebar, but it's time to move her over to the front-page, "Emails Show Top Christie Aides Had Bridge Lanes Closed to Punish Ft. Lee Mayor."

And at the New York Times, "Top Christie Staff Sought to Disrupt Traffic as Revenge." (More at Memeorandum.)

Added from Twitter:

True lesson of media feeding frenzy on Christie is #GOP candidates think they can be buddies with press. Nope, press views GOP as dinner.
— Dan Gainor (@dangainor) January 8, 2014

.@MelissaTweets @jimgeraghty Just like his pal Obama, Christie is shocked -- SHOCKED -- to learn something scandalous happened on his watch.
— Josh Painter (I-TX) (@Josh_Painter) January 8, 2014

More for Dan Riehl, "Chris Christie’s In Bigger Trouble Than You May Think."