In a state with the most disturbing suicide victim of 2010 – that Rutgers student whose sexual encounter with another young man was streamed over the Internet?
I cringed. I wonder if others did too.
I'm just sayin'.
Christie is getting lots of attention these days from GOPer's who otherwise wouldn't stomach his Northeastern "Rockefeller Republican" politics (too moderate for the Tea Party crowd). That's because he's talked and acted tough against some entrenched interests, and has refused to take federal money for projects that his state couldn't afford to match. The tunnel under the Hudson River is the case in point.
The irony is that other politicians from other parties are without referencing suicide, I should add getting on board the financial crackdown train.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the child of a dynamo Democrat politico family, is also talking tough about spending items that were once considered sacred cows by his party. And New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg is making re-defining public employee pension funds the top item on his agenda for the remainder of his term.
Today, Mr. Bloomberg unveiled his preliminary budget a budget to try to close a $4.58 billion deficit, and a budget that doesn't have nearly the cuts people originally feared. Unless you're a teacher.
More than 6,000 teachers face layoffs in this budget. It would have been more – and other cuts would have been deeper – thanks to Wall Street's rebound (the City coffers get a cut), and a nice rise in property taxes (nice unless you're a resident paying the tax).
We'll have reaction to the budget proposal, tonight at 11.
Also at 11, and speaking of Tea Partiers, Sarah Palin was in the New York metro area today, talking to 1,000 or so business people on Long Island. No word on how much the group paid the former Alaskan Governor (she resigned two years into her tenure; she would not have been able to get paid speaking fees of tens of thousands of dollars had she still been Governor). But there was quite a lively question and answer session.
POLL: WHY DOES PALIN CONTINUE TO SPEAK OUT?
And we're following the story of a rip off in New Jersey caught on surveillance camera: The sale of some gold by two guys who, when the buyer wasn't looking, switched the bag filled with gold for a bag filled with fake gold. And the switcharoo was all seen on the video.
And for everyone who gets weak in the knees at even the prospect of going to the dentist and for every dentist who needs some lessons in "bedside manners" tonight a story that should help everyone.
We report on a program at the N.Y.U. School of Dentistry where dentists learn how to make patients feel more at ease. Kemberly Richardson shows us the program and explores some of the other techniques private dentists are now embracing to get their patients to relax.
We also have a remarkable conclusion to a story that went viral on the Internet: That television reporter in Los Angeles who, reporting on the Grammys, started speaking as if she had a stroke. Turns out, she had something called a "complex migraine," which can, for a moment and temporarily, mirror symptoms of a stroke. How can this happen? And can it happen to anyone? We're looking at those questions, tonight at 11.
We'll also have any breaking news of the night, plus Meteorologist Lee Goldberg's AccuWeather forecast, and Rob Powers with the night's sports, including reaction from the Wilpons, owners of the New York Mets, about the prison-cell interview by the man who "financed" the team through his investments, Bernie Madoff. I hope you can join Liz Cho and me, tonight at 11.
