See the smile? That’s because my little puppy got into the bathroom trash today — which tells me she is back to her old, mischievious self.
Thanks to everyone who’s expressed concern. It is greatly appreciated by Annie and me.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
Even as the state Legislature moves forward with civil union legislation, the state Bar Association is lining up on the side of marriage equality (I saw this first on BlueJersey). It’s president, Wayne Positan, said the Assembly bill “needlessly creates ‘a multitude of questions’ simply to avoid calling the union of two people of the same sex a ‘marriage.'”
“Why not just call it what it is?” Positan asked. He said a rival bill by Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Mercer) that would recognize same-sex marriages is “the best way of complying” with the New Jersey Supreme Court’s Oct. 25 decision. That ruling said same-sex couples must be allowed to form relationships that carry all the rights and responsibilities of marriage but left it up to lawmakers whether to call them something else, such as civil unions.
Positan said creating a new legal structure called civil unions will “create a lot of work for lawyers” resolving arguments over what the new terminology means. He said allowing same-sex couples to marry is “a nice, simple, concise way of dealing with it as opposed to a lot of contrivances to get to the same place.”
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
Honey is back to being Honey. She ate today and begged for food, a sure sign that she is acting like her own self.
She is on steroids, which probably rules her out as a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer but likely jump-started her appetite, and will be on steroids for about two weeks. During this time we’ll monitor her and talk with the vet and make a determination on how to proceed.
For now, we will take her smiling, begging and general exuberance and enjoy it without reservation.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
Here is the third ad from Blue Jersey’s Think Equal campaign. Watch it and explain why we’re creating this cumbersome and unnecessary distinction.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
The judges got it right.
While there has been a movement afoot to quash the government’s ability to seize property for public use, the fact remains that it is sometimes necessary. The decision yesterday to uphold a lower court decision allowing a Mount Laurel seizure of a 16-acre parcel slated for 23 single-family houses.
The 6-1 decision allowing Mount Laurel to take over an old farm and stop a planned housing development opens a new legal avenue for preserving open space. It also expands the use of eminent domain, a hot topic across the country since the U.S. Supreme Court last year allowed towns to seize land and turn it over to private developers.
“The citizens of New Jersey have expressed a strong and sustained public interest in the acquisition and preservation of open space,” the court wrote in an unsigned four-page decision.
The court said the Burlington County township’s desire to limit development, overcrowded schools, traffic congestion and pollution was consistent with the “motive driving the public interest in open-space acquisition.”
The court decision means that open space preservation can be considered as a legitimate public use (the issue in the New Canaan case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court focused on a commercial redevelopment plan). And in New Jersey, that has to be viewed as a positive — umm — development.
Cranbury snared ($) a significant parcel in 2005, the 53-acre Fischer property on South Main Street (often called the “gateway to the southern end of town”) after threatening condemnation. And other communities have done the same.
The issue, of course, has been framed in a way to benefit the large property owners and developers — pitting a huge faceless bureaucracy against some small, powerless homeowner (i.e., Long Branch). These takings do occur, often for nefarious reasons (which is why we need tighter campaign-finance rules and pay-to-play restrictions). But we should not allow situations like the Long Branch taking to color our view of eminent domain ($).
With the proper controls ($), it can function as a way to enhance the public good.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
