Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

Hastert promises accountability, maybe

Dennis Hastert today vowed accountability in the Foley scandal:

Mr. Hastert, speaking to journalists in Aurora, Ill., in a question-and-answer session that illustrated how the Foley scandal is pushing other issues onto the sidelines, said he believed his assistants had handled the Foley affair “as well as they should.”

“However, in 20-20 hindsight, probably you could do everything a little bit better,” the speaker continued. “But if there is a problem, if there was a cover-up, then we should find that out through the investigation process.”

He said he first learned of Mr. Foley’s interest in former pages, and his e-mail messages to them, “last Friday. That was the first information that I had about it.” By “last Friday,” Mr. Hastert apparently meant Sept. 29, the day Mr. Foley abruptly resigned his seat after the explosive revelations of his sexually suggestive e-mails.

Mr. Hastert noted that the episode is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the House Ethics Committee. Anyone queried will be under oath “and we’ll find out,” he said. “If they did cover something up, then they should not continue to have their jobs.”

Does this mean he has to fire himself?

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Feeling Tiger-ish on Route 92

Opponents of Route 92 do have a right to feel like the Detroit Tigers. We were given no chance of prevailing, but — as the editorial in today’s Packet shows — we have knocked off the big boys, defeated the special interests and preserved a bit of sanity in the region.

There’s still work to do — we should get Bill Baroni and Linda Greenstein to take the highway away from the Turnpike and put the final stake in its heart.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

New Jersey Policy Perspectivereframes the wage issue

I pass this e-mail from New Jersey Policy Perspective along in its entirety because it pretty much sums up the way too many people in my business approach stories about work and workers:

Minimum Wage Hike is Bad ???
Framing the Issues is Crucial to Progress

The good news for working people in New Jersey is that the state’s minimum wage rose to $7.15 an hour on October 1. The bad news is that the state’s minimum wage rose to $7.15 an hour on October 1.

The good news-bad news equation, of course, reflects the reality that no one can support a family on $7.15 an hour. Many of you were part of the effort that won a two-stage increase to $7.15; you know we tried for more and that we couldn’t get it. That’s a fight for the future.

But something that adds to the frustration over working people not winning economic security is some of the press coverage of the recent increase. The emphasis of the stories is the burden that a $7.15 wage puts on businesses. For a couple of examples check out the Bergen Record and Philadelphia Business Journal.

My purpose here isn’t to beat up on the press, though it would have been nice if they’d sought out some working people to balance the gloomy business reaction. This is a symptom of a larger problem: the pre-occupation with the “business climate.” Sure, New Jersey’s economy needs businesses to thrive. But business climate as the dominant way of framing economic issues is troublesome for two reasons. One, real life is not so one-dimensional and, two, the impact on public policy is not always productive.

NJPP is working on some projects that we think will help in the effort to show the importance of the “working climate” in our state. We need to make sure that work is rewarded and working people are remembered.

I couldn’t have said this better.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.