NJ senator: 6 women's health clinics closed (thanks to Christie budget cuts)

[DainBramaged]

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A state senator who has gone to the mat with New Jersey's governor over budget cuts to women's health centers said Wednesday that six clinics have closed and others have slashed their hours since Gov. Chris Christie eliminated state funding.

Christie cut $7.5 million for 58 women's health clinics in the current year's budget.

Sen. Loretta Weinberg of Teaneck chaired a panel to examine the impact of the cuts on services to poor women who rely on the clinics for health and reproductive care.

"Cuts to women's health programs have a real-world impact, and that impact is being felt by women around the state who are unable to access basic health care services like cancer screening, STD testing, pre- and post-natal care and yes, contraception," Weinberg said afterward.

http://moneywatch.bnet.com/economic-news/news/nj-senator-6-womens-health-clinics-closed/6232606/

[aquart]

1. Or he could tax the rich.

[Botany]

2. Campaign theme for 2012

Republicans hate women

[niyad]

4. I think we need a new word --hate is so small a word compared to what they are feeling and doing.

[niyad]

3. I wonder when the women in this country will have finally had enough of this all-out war against us.

[LynneSin]

5. NJ has a recall policy - what's the status with that

Why wait unti 2013 to get this bozo out of office.

[niyad]

6. maybe his corpulence will do him in with no expense to us. who is the lt gov?

[DainBramaged]

8. Kim Guadagno

Guadagno's amateur hour at budget hearing


Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno is starring in a new show: Amateur Hour in Trenton. There’s no other way to describe her performance before the Senate budget committee on Monday, which left committee members baffled.

“It was a very, very bizarre hearing,” said committee chairman Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen). Very.

For months, Guadagno has lambasted the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, citing an incomplete state audit that allegedly found three contracts — totaling $300,000 for public art projects — went to one organization without proper authorization. Guadagno said a state attorney or the arts council board of trustees should have signed off on them. She called for Steve Runk, the executive director, to resign; he’ll leave this summer.

But as The Star-Ledger’s Peggy McGlone reported, Guadagno’s chief financial officer signed off on the controversial contracts with Co-Works, Inc., a Hamilton nonprofit. And as recently as February, the financial officer reminded the arts council in a memo that purchasing requests must be submitted to him for “review and processing.”

Guadagno may not have the power to fire arts council staffers, but when it comes to these contracts, the buck clearly stops at her door. The Senate committee pressed Guadagno about her department’s responsibility for greenlighting the contracts. “People in my shop were disciplined” for not following procedures, she replied, but refused to say definitively that one of her staffers had, in fact, signed all the contracts, and couldn’t describe their process for ensuring state regulations are followed.

http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2011/05/guadagnos_amateur_hour_at_budg.html

[vi5]

7. He's nowhere near unpopular enough....

He's really not. While NJ is a blue state, we also have a lot of Republican heavy enclaves.

He's unpopular with any unionized employees, but beyond that a lot of people like his style. I'm not saying he's hugely popular, but also not nearly unpopular enough to get even close to a recall.

[DainBramaged]

9. He will lose by a landslide in 2013 if he or his cronies run

There are Republicans I work with who have bluntly stated that when he won the primary a couple of years back he did it corruptly, and that his opponent, Steve Lonegan would have been a better Governor.

[vi5]

11. From your lips to whoever's ears...

God, I hope you are right. I really do. And since you're a fellow NJ person and are somewhat tuned in, I trust your opinion.

He's horrible. Just flat out horrible. But my fear is that he's so beloved by the national party and national republicans that it would be very hard for his state party to turn against him at this point and give him a primary challenge. And if it's him against a Dem, I'm not sure the Dem could win either.

Like I said, I hope I'm wrong. And you sound more plugged in than I am, so.......fingers crossed for the next 2 years.

[DainBramaged]

10. NJ against Chris Christie

http://www.facebook.com/pages/NJ-against-Chris-Christie/328558629455