Free Republic

It’s no surprise that the commuters and commercial truck-drivers who regularly slog across the George Washington Bridge are not happy with the news: Starting Sunday, auto motorists using cash will have to pay $15 to cross, a trip that until recently cost half that. They are the drivers from North Jersey and beyond who help make it the world’s busiest motor-vehicle bridge. And they are the same drivers who now must pay one of the most expensive tolls in the country. On Saturday afternoon, motorists were given a chance to vent, and they were more than willing to step up....

One report has been derided by critics of Gov. Chris Christie as a whitewash; his defenders see the other as a partisan smear-job against the governor. But both a new interim report for a legislative committee investigating the politically motivated lane closures last year near the George Washington Bridge and one commissioned by the governor’s office and released in March reach a similar conclusion: There is no evidence that Christie participated in the scheme or knew about it as it happened. They also share a shortcoming: Neither group of investigators had access to some witnesses who may be able to...

Two former associates of Gov. Chris Christie do not have to hand over documents to a legislative committee investigating the traffic jam scandal engulfing the governor, a New Jersey judge ruled Wednesday. Former Christie loyalists Bridget Kelly and Bill Stepien had been fighting subpoenas calling for them to turn over documents regarding the plot to create traffic jams in Fort Lee to retaliate against the town’s Democratic mayor. The legislative panel asked for the court’s help in getting the two to comply with the subpoenas. Calling the decision one involving “complicated and untested jurisdictional issues,” Judge Mary Jacobson expressed reservations...

Emails released today revealed two political bombshells: Gov. Chris Christie's office had advance knowledge of the traffic nightmare at the George Washington Bridge that crippled Fort Lee in September. And his top officials at the Port Authority did indeed close the lanes as a form of retribution against the town's mayor. "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee," Christie's deputy chief of staff wrote to David Wildstein, a top Christie appointee at the Port Authority. Wildstein answered, "Got it." Which confirms what critics have suspected all along: This was an outrageous misuse of public resources, a reckless endangerment of...

NEW YORK — A man who once swam for the U.S. Naval Academy's water-polo team has survived a terrifying leap from the George Washington Bridge. Authorities say 28-year-old Adrian Rawn stopped his car on the lower level of the bridge connecting Manhattan to New Jersey at about 11:30 a.m. on Friday, then walked to the rail and jumped.

Once upon a time, when you were just a kid, Mom or Dad probably read you "The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge.” And years later maybe you read this 1942 classic by Hildegarde H. Swift to your own children.   Little Red was saved twice by children, once from being auctioned off and once from neglect. The story begins with the introduction of a little lighthouse sitting on the rocky Manhattan shore of the Hudson River.  “It was round and fat and red. It was fat and red and jolly. And it was very, very proud.”  The...

'The Little Red Lighthouse' Monday, July 19, 2004 By THOMAS E. FRANKLIN THOMAS E. FRANKLIN / THE RECORD Under the big gray bridge sits a little red lighthouse. Hardly known and seldom seen, it sits quietly on the New York side of the Hudson, under the mighty roar of the George Washington Bridge. Immortalized in a popular children's book, it has stood as a quaint reminder of the past.The last surviving lighthouse in Manhattan, it stands just 40 feet high and a mere 28 feet above water. It was once an important beacon for ships from the north heading out...

TRENTON, N.J. -- Authorities were investigating reports of a shooting incident Wednesday evening involving a car and a tractor-trailer on the George Washington Bridge, police and turnpike spokesmen said. A witness reported that shots were fired at the truck at about 6 p.m. as the vehicles traveled westbound on the upper span of the bridge, according to Pasquale DiFulco, spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the bridge. No one was injured, authorities said. (snip) According to turnpike spokesman Joseph Orlando, authorities held up traffic on the southbound inner roadway near Interchange 12 in...

Unlikely thorn in government's side Wednesday, December 15, 2004  John Young certainly doesn't come off like an Internet renegade.At 68, the native Texan is decades older than most hackers. He is a respectable architect, having done work for Columbia University, the Austrian Consulate and St. Cecilia's Roman Catholic Church, all in Manhattan. He resides in a stately apartment building on the Upper West Side, complete with doorman.But John Young is all about making mischief - enough to irk more than one foreign government and to prompt a visit from the FBI.On his Web site, www.cryptome.org  , Young posts secret documents...