THE NEW JERSEY COP MAFIA CONNECTION TO RECENT CRIMES AGAINST CITIZENS AND OTHER CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR

MAY 3, 2015

The New Jersey cops, including the state and local governments, are notoriously corrupt.

NEW JERSEY NATIVE MD COP IS CHARGED TWO COUNTS OF SECOND-DEGREE ASSAULT, ONE COUNT OF FALSE IMPRISONMENT, AND TWO COUNTS OF MISCONDUCT IN OFFICE

One of the Baltimore police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray is a former volunteer firefighter in Gloucester County.

Edward M. Nero, 29, volunteered at the Washington Township Fire Department from 2002 until 2012, Fire Chief John Hoffman said Saturday.

Nero was one of six Baltimore officers charged Friday in the death of Gray, 25, who suffered a serious spinal cord injury last month while in police custody.

His death led to mass protests in Baltimore, where some protesters damaged property and city officials instituted a curfew.

Nero has been charged with two counts of second-degree assault, one count of false imprisonment, and two counts of misconduct in office, according to court documents.

He turned himself in to police Friday and has been released on bond, court records show.

NEW JERSEY-NATIVE SC COP SHOOTS A FLEEING AND UNARMED MAN FIVE TIMES IN HIS BACK, PLANTS EVIDENCE AND REFUSES TO GIVE CPR

Few weeks ago, an officer charged with murder in the shooting death of an unarmed black man in South Carolina has been fired as anger continues to build around his case.

A video shows Officer Michael Slager, a 2001 Lenape High School graduate in Medford, NJ, who is white, firing eight shots at 50-year-old Walter Scott as Scott has his back to him and is running away. Scott, who was unarmed, was struck five times.  Shortly after the shooting, this New Jersey native planted a taser close to the body of the victim and failed to assist the victim in any way.  That is pretty much the attitude of most New Jersey cops.

The cop's behavior in this case was so egregious, he has made it difficult for every law enforcement officer everywhere who go to work every day trying to do the right thing. How does anyone go from stopping someone for a broken break light (and no other apparent infraction) to chasing the driver and shooting him in the back five times (and eight shots fired)? I don't feel sorry for him, and there are probably psychological questions regarding his fitness for the job, why did he leave New Jersey to go to South Carolina to be a cop, and so on.

On average, statistics show that the high school bully or Irish or Italian immigrants become cops - Italians are known crooks, thiefs, liars, gangsters (mobsters, mafiosos), while Irish have a reputation of being "tough" and nasty.  All in all, very bad combination in police recruits gives policing a one-two punch in terms of ethical behavior.  There are few good men, but it is hard to find them, though.  Especially after 911, so many bad quality cops were hired, that the forces have been diluted by these residual or sub-par quality recruits.

LINDEN, NEW JERSEY COP WAS 3-TIMES THE LEGAL ALCOHOL LIMIT WHEN HE KILLED TWO OF HIS FRIENDS AND SERIOUSLY INJURED ANOTHER, INCLUDING HIMSELF.

 The blood-alcohol level of the Linden cop who drove the vehicle involved in last month's fatal wrong-way crash in Staten Island was at a point that would likely cause "substantial" impairment in driving and affect balance and muscle control, according to the CDC.

The Staten Island District Attorney's office confirmed that driver Pedro Abad's BAC was .24 percent, three times the legal limit of .08.

"In absolute terms, that's a very high blood alcohol level," said Marsha Bates, the associate director of Rutgers' Center of Alcohol Studies. "Someone who can drink enough to get their BAC that high would be substantially impaired in many domains of functioning, including skills that are involved in driving."

On March 20, Abad, 27, struck a tractor-trailer head-on while driving the wrong way on the West Shore Expressway in Staten Island. Abad and fellow officer Patrik Kudlac, 23, remain in critical but stable condition with slow progress, Linden police have said. Officer Frank Viggiano and passenger Joseph Rodriguez, both 28, were killed in the crash. The NYPD confirmed the four men were at the Curves strip club before the crash and said they are investigating whether Abad was intoxicated. 

The Center for Disease Control advises the following may happen at BAC levels of .15 or higher: "far less muscle control than normal, vomiting may occur (unless this level is reached slowly or a person has developed a tolerance for alcohol), major loss of balance, substantial impairment in vehicle control, attention to driving task, and in necessary visual and auditory information processing."

Many states, including New Jersey and New York, use a BAC of .15 as a benchmark for greater drunk-driving penalties.

Bates also noted Abad's BAC was more than halfway to the the "lethal dose 50" for alcohol — a BAC of .45 — which means that 50 percent of the time a BAC at that level causes death.

MORE RECENT CORRUPT ACTS OF NEW JERSEY STATE EMPLOYEES AND US SENATORS

A former ally of Gov. Chris Christie pleaded guilty Friday to helping to engineer traffic jams at the George Washington Bridge in 2013 and concocting a cover-up along with two other officials with close ties to Christie.

David Wildstein did not implicate Christie in the scheme that has cast a long shadow over the Republican governor's White House prospects in 2016.
Wildstein, an official at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey at the time of the tie-ups, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy.

He said that he came up with the plans along with Bridget Kelly, who was Christie's deputy chief of staff, and Bill Baroni, who was Christie's top appointee at the Port Authority.

He said they orchestrated the scheme to punish the Democratic mayor of the town of Fort Lee, at the foot of the bridge, for not endorsing Christie's re-election bid. He said they also agreed to cover it up by claiming the lane closings were part of a traffic study.

Before Wildstein appeared in court, Christie declined to comment Friday as he left a hotel in McLean, Virginia. Christie has insisted all along that he knew nothing about the scheme.

We are certain he will face significant civil liability, as well, as many people suffered damages as a result of this cruel scheme.  Get the real thug off the streets.

Now that Wildstein has pleaded guilty, it is worth remembering that what Christie has wanted all along is for Wildstein to take the fall.

In March 2014, Christie’s lawyers held an absurd press conference wherein they released the findings of their internal review of Bridgegate. They found, shockingly, that Christie had done nothing wrong—but that Wildstein had. 

They went as far as to paint Wildstein as frantic and unhinged—someone with “50 crazy ideas a week.” The report claimed, “Wildstein first approached [a Christie aide] about his idea to realign the Fort Lee toll lanes.”

After Bridgegate broke, Wildstein publicly requested immunity. A few weeks later, Wildstein’s attorney released a letter that claimed “evidence exists as well tying Mr. Christie to having knowledge of the lane closures, during the period when the lanes were closed, contrary to what the Governor stated publicly in a two-hour press conference he gave…Mr. Wildstein contents the accuracy of various statements that the Governor made about him and he can prove the inaccuracy of some.”

Last April, the legal website Main Justice reported that Wildstein had been cooperating with prosecutors, and implied that they have struck a deal.
Christie has maintained that he did not know about the plot to close the lanes, or the closures themselves. He went as far as to mock reporter Matt Katz in December 2013 when he asked about it: “I worked the cones actually,” he joked.

An admission of guilt from Wildstein does not necessarily put Christie in the clear. What matters is whether or not he revealed anything about Christie in his dealings with the Feds, and if his version of events suggests Christie did know of the lane closures or did, in fact, work those cones himself.

YOU LIE, YOU LOSE: NEW JERSEY SEN. BOB MENENDEZ INDICTED ON CORRUPTION CHARGES

HE JOINS A LONG LIST OF CORRUPT NEW JERSEY POLITICIANS, ELECTED CROOKS, GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, COPS, AND SO ON.  THE STATE LOGO IS: “WELCOME TO NEW JERSEY, NOW GIVE US ALL YOUR MONEY OR ELSE”

APRIL 1, 2015

WASHINGTON, DC (AP)

Sen. Bob Menendez was indicted on corruption charges Wednesday, accused of using his office to improperly benefit a Florida eye doctor and political donor.

The indictment charged the New Jersey Democrat with 14 counts, including bribery and conspiracy, over his ties to Dr. Salomon Melgen, a wealthy doctor and the politician's longtime friend.

Melgen also was charged in the case.

The indictment from a grand jury in New Jersey was the latest development in a federal investigation that came into public view when federal authorities raided Melgen's medical offices two years ago. The investigation focused on whether the senator had improperly advocated on Melgen's behalf, including by intervening in a Medicare billing dispute.

Menendez has acknowledged that he flew multiple times on Melgen's private jet to the Dominican Republic and initially failed to properly pay for the trips. Menendez in 2013 agreed to reimburse Melgen $58,500 for the full cost of two flights.

The senator's office later disclosed another flight, from Florida to New Jersey in 2011, and said Menendez had repaid Melgen $11,250 for it.

Last year, Menendez disclosed that his campaign accounts had paid a law firm $250,000 for legal costs related to investigations by the Justice Department and the Senate Ethics Committee of his ties to Melgen.

Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has acknowledged taking actions that could benefit Melgen, among them contacting U.S. health agencies to ask about billing practices and policies.

But the lawmaker has said he did nothing wrong and that he and Melgen have been friends for decades.

"We celebrated holidays together," he once told reporters. "We have been there for family weddings and sad times like funerals and have given each other birthday, holiday and wedding presents, just as friends do."

Melgen came under renewed scrutiny when government data last year showed he had received more in Medicare reimbursements in 2012 than any other doctor in the country.

Menendez becomes the first sitting U.S. senator to face indictment since then-Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, in 2008. Stevens was found guilty of concealing gifts from donors on financial disclosure statements, but the Justice Department later dropped the case after admitting that prosecutors failed to turn over evidence that would have been favorable to his defense.

Menedez joined the Senate in 2006 after serving more than a decade in the House of Representatives.

A lawyer and former mayor of Union City, New Jersey, Menendez also served in the New Jersey General Assembly and state Senate.

Even while under federal investigation, he has used his leadership position on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to criticize negotiations between President Barack Obama's administration and Iran on its nuclear program and has been outspoken in opposition to normalizing relations with Cuba.

 New Jersey:  the state of the few, the proud, the corrupt.

U.S. Oil Drillers Idle Rigs for 21st Straight Week

Published in Oil Industry News on Saturday, 2 May 2015

Oil explorers idled rigs in U.S. fields for the 21st straight week, extending an unprecedented retreat in drilling that has curbed domestic output and helped crude prices rally.

Rigs targeting oil in the U.S. declined by 24 to 679, Baker Hughes Inc. said on its website Friday, the lowest level since September 2010. Texas’s Eagle Ford formation lost the most, dropping seven to 91, the Houston-based field services company said. The Williston Basin, home of North Dakota’s prolific Bakken shale, added a rig for the first time in five months.

U.S. energy producers have sidelined more than half of the country’s oil rigs since October, suspending production growth from the nation’s shale formations and helping end the rout in West Texas Intermediate oil prices that began last year. Crude output has fallen three out of the last five weeks. WTI futures capped their biggest monthly advance since 2009.

“If you continue to see these rig counts decline and wells not being completed, you could be losing something like 70,000 to 100,000 barrels a day every month by the end of this year,” Scott Treadwell, a TD Securities Inc. research analyst, said during a conference in Calgary. “That will put a floor on WTI very quickly and the discussion when we’re short of production won’t be about storage volumes getting full. It will be about storage volumes getting emptied.”

The U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate oil for June delivery dropped 48 cents to settle at $59.15 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices advanced 25 percent in April, the biggest monthly gain since May 2009.

Slipping Output

Domestic oil production averaged 9.37 million barrels a day in the week ended April 24, down from the record 9.42 million reached in March, U.S. Energy Information Administration data show. Stockpiles at Cushing, Oklahoma, the biggest U.S. storage hub, shrank for the first time since November.

“In our view, there is no doubt that U.S. output is falling, and that the pace of decline is likely to accelerate in coming months,” Standard Chartered Plc analysts including Nicholas Snowdon, said in a research note April 27.

The number of oil rigs drilling in U.S. shale plays would have to rise by 200 just to stabilize output, Snowdon said. “This is unlikely to happen this year,” he said.
U.S. oil drilling is subsiding as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which accounts for about 40 percent of the world’s oil, resists calls to curb output. OPEC members pumped 31.295 million a day in April, near the highest level since November 2012, according to a Bloomberg survey of oil companies, producers and analysts.

Production Forecast

While U.S. output may decline between the second and third quarters, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. projected on April 26 that production in the fourth will still be 200,000 barrels a day above year-earlier levels. And that’s not including the backlog of uncompleted wells that drillers may start bringing online, the bank said.

“We see risk to our production modeling as skewed to the upside later this year,” Goldman said in a research note. “A rapid drawdown of the observed backlog of uncompleted wells could lead to higher production later this year and in 2016.”

The Williston was the first of the major U.S. oil plays to add a rig since drilling began collapsing across the country. The basin rose by one to 80 this week, Baker Hughes said.

Possible Rebound

The U.S. total may rebound to as high as 1,300 rigs should oil trade in the mid-$70s, Allen Gilmer, chief executive officer of the Austin-based energy data provider Drillinginfo, said by phone on Friday. The count will bottom in about a month, he said.

Whiting Petroleum Corp., the biggest oil producer in North Dakota’s Bakken shale, will put rigs back to work when oil prices rebound to $70 a barrel, James Volker, the company’s chief executive officer, said in a conference call with analysts on Thursday.

“Some of the rigs that we’ve released,” he said, “we can get back and pick up quickly.”
Source: www.bloomberg.com

U.S. Shale Firms Revive Hedging as Oil Rebounds by locking in prices for next year and beyond, safeguarding future supplies and possibly paving the way for a rebound in production.

Published in Oil Industry News on Saturday, 2 May 2015

U.S. oil producers are rushing to take advantage of the rebound in oil markets by locking in prices for next year and beyond, safeguarding future supplies and possibly paving the way for a rebound in production.

The flurry of hedging activity in the past month will help sustain producers' revenues even if oil markets tumble again, which is bad news for OPEC nations, such as Saudi Arabia, that are counting on low prices to stunt the rapid rise of U.S. shale and other competitors.

Oil drillers are racing to buy protection for 2016 and 2017 in the form of three-way collars and other options, according to four market sources familiar with the money flows. In some cases, that means guaranteeing a price of no less than $45 a barrel while capping potential revenues at $70.

U.S. crude futures traded just below $60 a barrel on Thursday.

Implied volatility - a gauge of options prices - tumbled nearly 30 percent this month to a four-month low reflecting increased options selling.

"A lot of producers that have hedges on for 2015 are under-hedged for 2016," said John Saucer, vice president of research and analytics at Mobius Risk Group. The crude's rally from six-year lows plumbed in January and easing option premiums have opened a "great opportunity" to buy extra insurance against a new slump, he said.

Analysts tracking hedging say that U.S. shale producers are protected as much as 50 percent less in 2015 compared with 2014. With new hedges now, producers have found an opportunity to maximize cash flow by selling calls and protecting the downside.

RISING PRICES, FALLING VOLATILITY

U.S. West Texas Intermediate prices rose about 25 percent in April, their biggest one-month gain in six years, as rising demand and deep cuts to U.S. drilling eased fears of a supply glut.

With rising prices, producers are locking in the upside, concerned that the rally may fizzle out with U.S. oil stockpiles at record highs - and as some producers, such as Pioneer Natural Resources start thinking about drilling again.

Pioneer is considering hedging out to 2017, chief executive Scott Sheffield told Reuters. The company says it may add more rigs in the Permian Basin this summer and has already hedged 90 percent of this year's production and 60 percent for 2016.

"You can do pretty decent three-ways, but you don’t want to give up a bunch of upside," Sheffield said last week.

A three-way collar involves buying a put option, which sets a floor for prices and selling a call option at a higher strike price, which caps gains in case of a rally but yields income that serves to offset the cost of the put options. In addition, the company sells another out-of-the-money put as well, which lowers the overall cost of the transaction but exposes the producer to greater risk if prices drop too low.

Because the transaction involves selling more options than buying, it tends to drive implied volatility lower. Hedging by oil consumers, such as airlines, which tends to drive volatility higher, has been remarkably quiet lately, dealers say.
The CBOE crude oil volatility index fell to around 37 points this week, down from a four-year high of 64 in February.

Companies may offer more details on recent hedging when they release first quarter results in coming days, though some have moved early.

Hess Corp and Cenovus Energy Inc both said this week that they boosted their derivatives books in January and February when prices were still low and options premiums high.

Oil producers and consumers have amassed the largest net short position in U.S. oil options and futures since 2011 over the past weeks, Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show, supporting the idea that they have been skeptical about a sustained price rally.

While there are signs that four years of rapidly rising U.S. oil output may end next month and indications that consumption is picking up, some bearish factors cloud the picture, including Saudi Arabia pumping at record levels and a record U.S. inventory overhang.

Against that backdrop, producers are offloading options contracts, such as the WTI December 2016 $60 call. Open interest in the contract has risen by 22 percent over the past five weeks while open interest for Brent December 2016 $75 call rose more than eight-fold in the last week.

Meanwhile, brokers say at-the-money WTI options straddle volumes have been low and premiums are falling, indicating expectations prices will hold mostly steady. A straddle involves buying both a call and a put at the same strike price and expiration date and traders use it to bet on changes in market volatility regardless of price direction.

Producer hedging may not by itself lead to a quick rebound in U.S. drilling after months of cuts, warns Michael Cohen, head of energy commodities research at Barclays.

"This took five months to get here (cut production) and it'll take five months to get out," he said.
Source: www.reuters.com

Coast Guard rescues 3 from boat adrift near the west breakaway in Oswego Harbor

May 2, 2015

U.S. Coast Guard Station Oswego file photo by Seaman Bryan Sullivan

CLEVELAND — The Coast Guard rescued three people Saturday afternoon from an adrift boat near the west breakaway in Oswego Harbor, New York. 

At about 4 p.m., a watchstander at Coast Guard Sector Buffalo responded to a distress call coming over VHF-FM channel 16, the international hailing and distress channel, from the boaters aboard the pleasure craft Trouble Shooter. 

The 24-foot boat became disabled and there was no anchor aboard, and due to it being in vicinity of the breakaway the Coast Guard deemed it a distress situation. The watchstander issued an urgent marine information broadcast and directed the launch of a rescue boat crew from Coast Guard Station Oswego.

The rescue crew aboard a 25-foot response boat was on scene with the distressed boaters within 10 minutes and towed the vessel to Wrights Landing in Oswego.

The Coast Guard reminds boaters of the importance of having a VHF-FM radio aboard your vessel. In this case it assisted greatly in the quick response of the Coast Guard and the eventual safe return of three boaters.

SLOW DOWN IN WORK ZONES: CAR DRIVER KILLED, 4 ROAD CONSTRUCTION WORKERS INJURED IN BUCKS COUNTY, PA AFTER A CAR CRASHED INTO A TRUCK CARRYING THE WORKERS WHO WERE PICKING UP TRAFFIC CONES.

MAY 3, 2015

BUCKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

A driver was killed and four construction workers were injured, one seriously, Saturday morning in a crash in a construction zone on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in lower Bucks County.

The accident happened just before 5:30 a.m. in the eastbound lanes near the Bensalem Interchange. It closed the eastbound lanes until 11 a.m.

The driver of the car, who had not been identified, crashed into a truck carrying construction workers who were picking up traffic cones to reopen a lane closed for overnight work, state police said. 

The driver was pronounced dead at the scene.

One construction worker was flown to Temple University Hospital. Another was taken to Aria Health, Torresdale campus by ambulance. Information about their conditions was not available Saturday night. 

Two other workers were taken to Lower Bucks Hospital for observation and were released.

"Though the cause of this morning's disaster hasn't yet been confirmed, experience tells us that speed and distraction are likely to blame," Turnpike Commission chairman Sean Logan said in a statement Saturday.

On Monday, a driver who was speeding in a work zone swerved into a closed lane to evade arrest, striking and injuring a construction worker in Bedford County.

In response to these and other work-zone crashes, the Turnpike Commission has launched a campaign in which state troopers conduct speed enforcement in work zones. 

The Turnpike Commission plans to start running commercials on Monday reminding motorists to slow down in work zones.

Source:Philadelphia.cbslocal.com