Piney Powers
Phil Murphy withdrew the nomination of Kelly Mooij to the Pinelands Commission for reasons unspecified, though the Burlington County Times, citing “multiple sources,” says Mooij is expected to join the BPU instead.
Carleton Montgomery of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance had been, reportedly, in favor of Mooij’s appointment, but Jeff Tittel of the Sierra Club had been a critic, or something, due to ties that the Audubon Society (where Mooij worked) had to forestry and utilities activities through some kind of stewardship council. You can be forgiven for not following the thread through that spiderweb, but we’re at the point where if someone tells me the Sierra Club is controlled by Halliburton, I can’t tell if they’re kidding or not.
Charter Schools
The Asbury Park Press has a long and exceedingly wonky series on charter schools that I haven’t fully read let alone digested, but cynics among you will be unsurprised to know two of the state’s largest charter school operators have been permitted, per this story, to, “monopolize hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid for public school construction, helping them to create networks of privately owned buildings” among other grifts innovations.
The beauty of owning lots of buildings is you’re then free to jack up rents or sell them back and forth at inflated prices, turning public money into private money that can be used to pay for diddums’ jet skis or whatever.
To be continued.
Adventures in Health Insurance
In national news, the Trump Administration has used the attention shadow cast by the Attorney General’s release of his book report on the actual Mueller Report (which has not been released and may never be released) to decline to defend the Affordable Care Act in court, throwing the healthcare of lots of New Jerseyans, etc., into question.
Anyway, the response of Andy Kim as well as Frank Pallone and Tom Malinowski is a bill for “tax credits to help… Americans buy insurance and prevent the sale of policies that do not provide basic coverage for all policyholders, including those with pre-existing conditions” which is not the same as “Medicare for All” that the Dem presidential hopefuls are in favor of.
In related news, we got a $7,000 medical bill the other day for “emergency” services or something after our primary care pediatrician sent us for a scan at the hospital and we and our prescription were sent to the ER. Then when we called to question the bill, they told us to fax them a letter since email’s “not private” which ironically is a) not inaccurate and b) part of the reason we are in this mess right now vis a vis the ACA.
Anyway. Do you have a story about an insane medical bill? Fax us at news@RtForty.com!
For more feats of journalism…
Charge: SJ doctor ordered unnecessary tests on urine collected from drug rehabs–Federal prosecutors announced charges Monday against Dr. Ramesh Sarvaiya, 64, of Voorhees, and Jessie Peters, 44, of Lake Worth, Florida. Both are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. www.courierpostonline.com
$22K in public money ended up in councilwoman’s bank account. She’s avoiding jail time.–A former Bridgeton councilwoman who was accused of taking more than $22,000 from the city’s housing authority will not serve any time in jail. www.nj.com
TRENTON TACKLES NJ’S FORECLOSURE RATE, DOWN BUT STILL HIGHEST IN NATION–New Jersey, which has struggled with a high foreclosure rate since the Great Recession, continues to lead the nation in foreclosures. www.njspotlight.com
Controversy mars otherwise exciting Atlantic City boxing card: Weinberg–In the main event, Santander Silgado decided to stage a sit-in after two rounds of his scheduled 10-rounder against Paulsboro’s Chazz Witherspoon. www.pressofatlanticcity.com
Alleged leader in $50M prescription fraud case can go to Disney World–District Judge Robert Kugler ruled that Sara Hickman could take the couple’s 5-year-old on a preplanned trip to Orlando, Florida, “for the purpose of visiting Disneyworld and other amusement venues in the Orlando area." www.breakingac.com