Late night open thread

Johnny's got friends coming from all over these United States this weekend starting early tomorrow so he's releasing the interns from their shackles and we'll take a timeout we don't have until Monday.

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Work has begun on the Powerhouse building for Jersey City's new teevee offering

Men with no fear began putting scaffolding up around the stacks of the Powerhouse building this morning. This is all part of next season's show which will take place in Jersey City called "Wipeout: Death Factor!" It takes the wildly popular format of the show Wipeout (seen here) and ups the ante. Sure the cash and prizes will be bigger because instead of falling off an apparatus and landing in 'the fluids' you might just land 10 stories down on Washington St.

Production should begin later this summer.

Why is it you never see pudding used as evidence on CSI or NCIS?

Because pudding and pudding cups were at the crux of a case so big and so serious it took 5 years to bring it to court. Here's the backstory courtesy of The Jersey Journal:

Efrain Rivera, 52, of Jersey City faced burglary and theft charges stemming from a May 2008 incident where a Jewett Avenue man had more than $8,000 in power tools stolen from his basement apartment. 

The assistant prosecutor had linked Rivera to the scene through DNA evidence taken from two cups of Boost pudding and a bottle of cranberry juice.

That's all Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Jason Cieri needed, somebody's DNA on a pudding cup.

So there you have it readers, his DNA was all up in those pudding cups and therefore he took the tools. 

But, wait, hold on a minute...

Nope, the DNA says he did it, he ate pudding now he must pay for his crimes.

It would seem to most people you'd want to ask...

Nope, open and shut case because PUDDING!

It took a jury of his peers a mere two hours to declare Mr. Rivera not guilty. Somebody in the prosecutor's office might have thought to, in these last five years, ask if Rivera had business in that apartment building. He had several legitimate contacts and reasons to be in the building it turns out according to his attorney and witnesses who testified in court.

Several legitimate contacts. Five years. Extensive pudding cup DNA tests. Court and attorney fees. Well done indeed.

Late night open thread

"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever."
 -- Napoleon Bonaparte

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Healy and Fulop go toe to toe, mano y mano, one on one...

And this is the part where Johnny dissects some of what was discussed.

Something has been eating at Johnny since he read the debate stories where Councilman Fulop challenged our Mayor because so many of his closest political allies, his deputy mayor (and campaign treasurer) and others who did business with Mayor Healy (how are those pancakes at the Brownstone Diner tasting now?) are in jail, have killed themselves or resigned in disgrace. Mayor Healy's actual response on his meeting that day with Solomon Dwek, Leona Beldini and others:

“I should have gotten a gold medal for effective, honest, open government for that,” he said.

That wasn't The Onion making up that quote, no it was Mayor Healy himself.

You don't get a gold medal for not committing a crime. You're expected to not commit crimes all the time and everywhere you go. You do not get credit or a gold medal for all your closest allies going to jail while you weren't arrested. You're don't get to elevate yourself as some paramour of virtue because you weren't indicted and your pals were. 

Unless.

Unless you were one who helped turn state's evidence, secretly of course, once you found out just how out of control this vipers nest at city hall had become. Unless you decided to take a stand for honest and open government and made a phone call or two. See that would be how one would get a gold medal in all this. But as of press time you haven't claimed credit for helping in the investigation.

Back to Mayor Healy's very bad debate day (and remember last time when he didn't even bother to show up for a few of the debates because he knew he had Lou Manzo whipped already). When pressed by Fulop on how Journal Square becomes a priority two months before each election Healy basically said well it was better than the dump he inherited (and then ran three times to govern over it). Ah yes, it's not a swamp, it's only a bog. The very Journal Square theatre the debate took place in came up as a topic of debate. Healy said he wouldn't drop any taxpayer money into the 'in-progress' rehab of historic Loew's Theatre. Fulop said rehabbing Loew's is vital to anchoring the Journal Square area. 

Check local cable times for the debate to air in it's entirety. 

We'd like to pass along a "what a douchecanoe" aimed at Hudson Media Group's Pat O'Melia who decided that Jersey City mayoral candidate Abdul Malik wasn't allowed to participate in the debate. Again, douchecanoe. He's on the ballot. Who cares if YOU don't think he can win. How about we as a right-thinking city excuse this clown from further debate decision making?

Late night open thread

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

A reminder that tonight is the first Jersey City Dishcrawl!

So all of you who are going do not forget tonight is the first Jersey City Dishcrawl. This has been such a success that there are NO MORE tickets available for tonight's event. Make sure to check this site as well as the Dishcrawl site for future events. They did after all choose New Jersey's culinary first kingdom. They could have tried Hoboken (meh), they could have tried Atlantic City (double meh) or anywhere else. They knew where the true foodies live.

Hopefully some of the folks on the Dishcrawl tonight can give us some commentary on how this all went.

Mayoral showdown at Loew's Theatre today at 1pm

Historic Loew's Theatre will be the site of a showdown between some of the Jersey City candidates looking for the top job. Mayor Healy will be there as will Councilman Steve Fulop. Jerry Walker has been invited but illness may keep him away. Candidate Abdul Malik wasn't even invited and actually wasn't even allowed to participate. That's shameful.

So get yourselves on that Journal Square train, or head in from Nidia's Neighborhood and see the fireworks beginning at 1pm.

Late night open thread

Mark Twain was born on the day of the appearance of Halley's Comet in 1835, and died on the day of its next appearance in 1910.

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

The Yankees have traded for Justin Verlander!

OK, it's an April Fool's joke on an Opening Day Monday. The Yankees can only HOPE to get Justin Verlander if perhaps the Tigers organization takes silly pills.

However baseball fans, for the first time since the 1950's the Yankees and Metropolitans will open at home in the same day at the same time, 1pm.

Johnny actually sees a World Series rematch this year, with his picks of the San Francisco Giants and the Detroit Tigers now set in stone. Wanna talk some baseball? Why you've come to the right place. Drop some predictions or trade possibilities for the Yanks and Mets in comments.

Play Ball!