When Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg began attending Port Authority meetings, she began uncovering the scandal that we’ve come to know as “Bridgegate.” On this episode, the incomparable and indomitable Senator Weinberg gives her thought about the upcoming trial, talks about her life as an elected official, her special relationship with Governor Christie, and she gives her advice to any young people who may aspire to fill her shoes.
Buzz Aldrin, Montclair’s man on the moon, has led an extraordinary life in the years leading up to – and since – his historic voyage on Apollo 11. Just days before he returns to Montclair for the dedication of a middle school in his honor, Aldrin talks about some of his memories of living in Montclair, where President Kennedy originally wanted to send astronauts in the 1960s, and when and how we should be landing on Mars.
If you don’t know N.J. Assemblyman Benjie Wimberly through his political and government credentials, you almost certainly know him as the legendary football coach who brought Super Bowl Champion Victor Cruz and T.J. Clemmings to the NFL. But even that description falls short of describing the person that Benjie Wimberly has become to the people of Paterson, N.J. (where people call him “Coach” more often than “Assemblyman.”) In this episode, Wimberly talks about football, the roughly 30 years he has spent as a coach, and how he would coach our state’s third largest city to achieving its full potential.
Heather Howard rose to prominence when she served as New Jersey’s State Health and Senior Services Commissioner in Governor Jon Corzine’s administration during the height of the national health care reform debate. Six years after the Affordable Care Act (ACA) a.k.a. “Obamacare” became law, Howard is traveling the country helping states to implement the ACA. She is also on the faculty of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs where she is teaching about the nuanced world of policy making as it relates to health care, and she is an elected Democrat on the Princeton Municipal Council. In this episode, Howard talks about whether we are all healthier after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, explains some of the details behind Aetna’s recent withdrawal from Obamacare in all but four states, and she tells us what we may not be appreciating about her former bosses, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Jon Corzine.
Gordon MacInnes, President of New Jersey Policy Perspective, knows Trenton and Jersey politics. He served two terms in the Statehouse, first as an assemblyman and later as a state senator – no small feat for a Democrat who hails from Republican-dominated Morris County. He also served as New Jersey’s Assistant Commissioner of Education and became known as the state’s “Abbott Czar” as he administered New Jersey’s Abbott school funding program. In this episode, MacInnes explains how New Jersey has the option of putting the Transportation Trust Fund and public pension funding liability problems on the desks of the next governor and state legislature. He also gives his point of view on Governor Christie’s proposal for school funding reform, and he gives a preview of NJPP’s upcoming report on the nine worst decisions ever made in the state. As NJPP approaches its 20th anniversary, MacInnes gives his run down on some of the organization’s greatest accomplishments and tells why NJPP is NOT a liberal think tank.
School may be out for the summer but New Jersey’s student loan program has come under fire since a July 3 Propublica/New York Times story. “State sanctioned loan sharking” was how one person quote in the story described the state’s Higher Education Student Assistance Authority and its loan program, NJ CLass. In this episode, Deanna Marie Norcross and Vincent Cimilluca talk about their personal connection being saddled with student loan debt in New Jersey, how it’s stunting the future they want to have together, and the activist group they’ve started, desclassifynj, to help find solutions to student debt problem in New Jersey.
Anyone with a political hangover from the past two weeks’ conventions will want to hear from Harry Pozycki, founder and chair of The Citizens Campaign. He has a lot to say about how much power we the people in the cheap seats of government really have, and how we can go about using it. He shares a lot of the knowledge he picked up in his extensive career in public service, during which he held offices including Middlesex County Freeholder and Chair of the Middlesex County Democratic Committee. Whether you believe your political voice has been heard this year or if you feel the whole system is rigged, Pozycki says the people have more power than many of us realize and he explains how on this episode.
Cathleen Lewis holds a unique position in Transportation Trust Fund/Gas Tax debate as Public Affairs Director for the American Automobile Association in New Jersey. While she is a known proponent of raising the gas tax, Lewis offers an argument on how a 23-cents per gallon increase in the gas tax could actually save New Jerseyans from future property taxes increases. A council member of the Township of Lawrence - where she previously served as mayor – Lewis explains what the effects of Governor Christie’s executive order to stop work on the state’s transportation projects have been on the state’s counties and municipalities. Lewis talks about how being on the front lines of New Jersey’s transportation issues means that she is often the only woman in the room, and gives her thoughts on juggling being a wife and mom with a full time job and an elected position.
N.J. Senator Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth) has been making headlines this year opposing a 23-cents-per-gallon gas tax hike and being among the first Republicans to not support Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy. But there’s much more to Senator Beck. On this episode, Senator Beck gives us her read on the post budgetary climate surrounding the gas tax debate and the Transportation Trust Fund, she provides an update on her work on behalf of those affected by Superstorm Sandy, and she explains how she went from being a physics and math major conducting research at the Goddard Space Flight Center to serving in the New Jersey State Legislature.
Two roads to school reform have diverged in New Jersey and Dr. Julia Sass Rubin of Rutgers University’s Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy isn’t thrilled with the choice. Dr. Rubin explains why neither of the proposals put firth by Governor Christie and Senator Sweeney make the grade, and gives her thoughts on how we should be going about reforming our schools. She also talks about charter schools and their effect on the education of those who don’t attend them. She explains the mission of Save Our Schools NJ, the all-volunteer organization she helped found that is aimed at making sure parents’ voices are heard as educational policy is made in New Jersey, and she shares a little bit of her story as an immigrant who came to the United States from the Soviet Union, via Israel, at the age of 10.
In this bit of a recent interview with that was rescued from The Backgrounder's cutting room floor (hence, the "CRF"), Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon explains why he believes drivers in New Jersey should be allowed to fill their own tanks at the gas pump.
Patricia Campos Medina is President of LUPE PAC, an organization aimed at getting more Hispanic women into elected office and keeping Latina incumbents in office, regardless of their political party. The mission of LUPE, which stands for Latinas United For Political Empowerment, is largely fueled by the fact that only one of New Jersey’s 565 mayors is Latina (Perth Amboy’s Wilda Diaz - Episode 59), and only 10 of the State Legislature’s 120 seats are held by Latinas. However, there’s more to Campos Medina than her current position. In this episode, she tells the story of how she came to the United States from El Salvador at the age of 14 not knowing English, and then four years later she was accepted at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Today, Campos Medina is one of the leading labor and political leaders in New Jersey and the nation, having helped the campaigns of President Barack Obama, former Governor Jon Corzine, and former Newark Mayor Cory Booker. Later this month, she will be in Philadelphia as a delegate to the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
Former State Assemblyman Jason O’Donnell, a retired firefighter, rescued a woman from drowning a few weeks ago and proved that once a first responder, always a first responder. So does the same principle apply to O’Donnell’s political life? It wasn’t long ago when O’Donnell was not only in the State Assembly but was also a possible chair of New Jersey’s Democratic Party. O’Donnell talks about the day of the rescue that made headlines and whether a political comeback is in his future.
As New Jersey's Transportation Trust Fund is nearly depleted, and as lawmakers are considering a bill to raise the gas tax for the first time in nearly 30 years to drive revenue to the fund, The Backgrounder rewinds back to some of the conversations with people who have been on the front lines of the through the years (in some cases, decades). Former NJDOT Commissioner Jamie Fox, James Hughes of Rutgers University, Steve Adubato, Jr., Former Governor Thomas H. Kean, & NJ State Senator James Whalen are heard from in this special edition.
Practically everyone in Trenton agrees that something must be done to remedy New Jersey’s $43.7 billion pension deficit. It’s the question of what exactly to do about it that divides people. In this unique election year in New Jersey, where the candidates at the top of the tickets may very well be the questions on the bottom of the ballot this November, The Backgrounder looks at two sides of what to do about the pension crisis. First, N.J. State Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon (R-Little Silver) talks about his recently unveiled 3-point plan to address the pension crisis through an overhaul of health insurance benefits for public workers and retirees. Then, Wendell Steinhauer and Ed Richardson, president and executive director (respectively) of the New Jersey Education Association, give their reaction to the O’Scanlon plan and explain why New Jersey voters who do not receive a public pension should vote in favor of the ballot question in November.
Katie Meyler forged a path from working class roots in Bernardsville, N.J. to helping children in West Point, Liberia that was cleared by her belief than we should all be working for something bigger than ourselves. That belief is the cornerstone of the organization Meyler founded called the More Than Me Foundation, which has been building and improving schools that help get children – especially sexually exploited girls – off the streets and into the classroom. More Than Me received a huge boost from a $1 million award from The JP Morgan Chase Foundation in 2012, and faced incredible challenges during the Ebola outbreak of 2014. In this episode, Meyler tells her story that has brought her before some of the world’s wealthiest people and powerful heads of state, and landed her a spot on Time Magazine’s Person of the Year list in 2014. And she tells of how she was able to overcome her own self-doubt and perceived limitations in order to achieve success on her amazing journey.
Scott Gurian is an award-winning journalist who knows no limits when it comes to getting a great story. He helped WNYC score a Peabody Award for his coverage of Superstorm Sandy, and he helped launch NJSpotlight.org’s environmental investigative series “Dirty Little Secrets.” But the lengths he will go to for a great story are soon to surpass several thousand miles as he documents his upcoming trip from London to Mongolia in a used car. The stories he gets will be featured on his new podcast called far from home (farfromhomepodcast.org), which just recently went online. In this special live-recorded edition of The Backgrounder, Scott Gurian talks about his new podcast and explains why he wanted to take this trip in the first place.
Paula Poundstone’s observational humor has made her a one-of-a-kind performer on America’s stand-up comedy circuit, as well as a popular panelist on NPR’s weekly news quiz show “Wait, Wait. Don’t Tell Me,” (created and hosted by former Berkeley Heights resident Peter Sagal). Poundstone has played in nearly every major venue in New Jersey, and she’ll return on June17 to perform at The Levoy Theater in Millville. On this episode, Poundstone gives her perspective of the Garden State (informed by her many gigs here) and says what she believes is the greatest comedy film of all time. Also on this episode, N.J. Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto returns to The Backgrounder to talk about how lawmakers in Trenton reached the recent compromise to rescue Atlantic City from bankruptcy.
After serving in the State Legislature for 15 years, N.J. Senator Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield) has clearly emerged from his father’s shadow and come into his own as a lawmaker and a formidable Republican player in New Jersey’s political arena. School choice and tax relief - including getting New Jersey taxpayers a break for charitable contributions - are among the issues topping his agenda. And Kean says he’ll run for statewide office again. But will it be for governor in 2017? Senator Kean answers the question and talks about a host of issues pertaining to New Jersey on this episode.
Tom Bracken has never held an elective office. And yet as President & CEO of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, he is one of the most powerful voices in Trenton shaping public policy. Recently, as lawmakers engaged in the political jousting around the Atlantic City fiscal crisis, Bracken called on lawmakers to begin working with business leaders to help Atlantic City as they had agreed to do at the Chamber’s summit meeting last fall. In this episode, Bracken explains why people who don’t live Atlantic City should care about its future. He also talks about his work to keep the Transportation Trust Fund solvent, what he thinks about a constitutional amendment concerning pension payments, and how he came from a small Pennsylvania town to work in Trenton.
Paul Reiser is a comedian, writer and actor and well known as a native New Yorker. But before America saw Reiser in the classic film “Diner” or came to know Reiser as the star and creator of NBC’s hit TV series “Mad About You,” there was a time when he called New Jersey his home. In this episode, Reiser explains how he ended up in the Garden State, and talks about some of the highlights of his career that has included appearances in more than 20 major motion pictures including “Concussion,” the Oscar nominated “Whiplash,” and the upcoming horror movie “The Darkness” in theaters May 13. He also discusses his latest episodic comedy, “Red Oaks” on Amazon Prime, which is set at a New Jersey country club in 1985; and his upcoming May 14 appearance at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark.
As a working actor, Ross Gibby is no stranger to uncertainty. But nothing in his acting career has felt as uncertain as when he and his wife learned they were raising a child with autism. In the episode, Gibby talks about his appearances on TV shows like “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” his unforgettable role on “Sex In The City,” and being a part of a major film release like the highly anticipated suspense thriller, “The Girl On The Train.” He also explains how the uncertainty that came with raising a child with autism became, over time, a gift.
For 35 years, Hetty Rosenstein has been a voice for New Jersey’s middle class. Today, she finds herself on the front lines of two major issues in New Jersey: the current strike of 39,000 Verizon employees and the upcoming public question on a constitutional amendment that would require the state to make regular payments to public pensions. Rosenstein talks about both of these issues in this episode, as well as the need for a law to protection New Jersey’s children welfare workers on the job and a bit of how she came to start her career as a voice for labor in the Garden State.
Does hooking up on Tinder make a person more vulnerable to sexual assault? Do the rape scenes in the HBO series “Game Of Thrones” contribute to a culture that makes people more vulnerable to rape? Are expectant parents holding “gender reveal parties” part of the problem? Do those blue lights with call boxes found on college campuses make people any safer from sexual assault? These are tough questions and Patricia Teffenhart, Executive Director of the NJ Coalition Against Sexual Assault, gives us her answers in this episode. Teffenhart also talks about why, during this Sexual Assault Awareness Month, she is trying to continue the recent momentum of heightened public awareness of the problem, thanks in part to films like Spotlight, The Hunting Ground and Lady Gaga’s performance on the Academy Awards. She explains that while her message may be simple – which is, we must all be a part of the solution to eliminate sexual assault, changing the way people think about sexual assault is not.
Michael Maron, president and CEO of Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, has achieved some notoriety as one of the most outspoken critics of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of NJ’s OMNIA health plan. But it is his leadership of a faith-based – that is, Catholic – hospital (that happens to be where he was born) that has made Maron stand out in New Jersey’s health care landscape. In this episode, Maron explains why he believes OMNIA is bad for the future of health care in New Jersey, why Holy Name’s faith based mission is good for the health care of its patients, and how a person can maintain principles of faith while keeping a sharp business edge in a competitive marketplace.