Hank Kalet

Consider it official. The N.J. Turnpike Authority has asked the state Department of Environmental Protection to withdraw all pending permits for Route 92, essentially killing the project.

In a letter to the DEP dated Dec. 1, Turnpike Executive Director Michael Lapolla write that “we have decided to cancel the Route 92 project” and “consider all applications pending or on record with the DEP as withdrawn.”

The action puts an end to the current chapter of the horror novel that has been Route 92, though it remains possible that like so many horror-story ghosts it could return in the future. That’s why we — the South Brunswick Post — continue our call for adoption of Assembly Bill A685 (sponsored by Assemblyman Bill Baroni, R-14) and S883 (sponsored by state Sen. Peter Inverso, R-14). The legislation — essentially the same bill introduced in both houses of the state Legislature — would strip the Turnpike Authority of its “authorization to build the Route 92,” putting the final nail in the project’s coffin.

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The Blog of South Brunswick

Steve Masticola on the South Brunswick Post’s Blog of South Brunswick calls attention to a couple of wire-service stories that should be of note to the community:

Two wire services have reported briefly that the Turnpike Authority’s Route 92 project has been cancelled. I have personally attempted to contact Governor Corzine to confirm this.

We’re working on it as we speak and will have something up on our regular South Brunswick Post site, our blog and here on Channel Surfing when we have it.

Thanks for the heads up Steve.

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

Corruption in New Jersey knows no party allegiance, as this story shows.

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The Blog of South Brunswick

Two long essays that, taken together along with Michael Isikoff and David Corn‘s book, Hubris, and Frank Rich‘s The Greatest Story Ever Sold, are essential to understanding the history of our misadventure in Iraq.

The first, Mark Danner’s “Iraq: The War of Imagination,” comes courtesy of The New York Review of Books. Danner has been one of the most important reporters writing on the war, a war in which the best writing has taken place away from the news pages and in opinion journals and on the editorial and op-ed pages. It is a long essay, as I said, even by NYRB standards, but read it anyway.

The second, Nir Rosen’s disection of the descent into civil war — “Anatomy of a Civil War: Iraq’s descent into chaos” — ran in The Boston Review and is one of the few dispatches from the war zone that avoids the trap of partisanism or sentimentality. It is a hard-headed piece that should make everyone feel just a little discomfort.

Read them and weep. Literally.

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

Here is something I didn’t know aboaut Tom Glavine that should make Mets Maniacs happy (it is from the Elias Sports Bureau, posted by ESPN):

• Tom Glavine re-signed with the Mets on Friday. The Mets were 24-8 in games started by Glavine in 2006, the second-highest winning percentage for any major-league team in a particular pitcher’s starts. The top three (minimum: 20 starts): Johan Santana (Twins were 27-7, .794), Glavine (Mets were 24-8, .750), Kenny Rogers (Tigers were 24-9, .727).

Pretty snazzy stuff.

Just as importantly, it sets up the rotation’s number-two and three pitchers, for now, with Pedro Martinez due back mid-season (making him the potentially equivalent of a deadline-deal pickup).

Right now things go like this: Glavine, Orlando Hernandez and a selection of three from this group — John Maine, Oliver Perez, Brian Bannister, Mike Pelfrey, Philip Humber and Aaron Heilmann. Perez and Heilmann are the wild cards here — Perez may have the biggest upside of anyone on the staff, if Rick Peterson can get him to throw strikes on a consistent basis, while Heilmann’s fate (I’d like to see him in the rotation) will depend on how they reconstruct the bullpen.

In any case, there is at least one, if not two other moves coming, from what I read, whith Barry Zito the big fish. If Zito can’t be reeled in, look for the team to make a trade — though any deal for the kind of guy they really need (Dontrelle Willis and the obvioulsy unavailable Roy Oswalt being the best fits, with Jake Peavey also high on the list) will probably cost them Lastings Milledge and/or Heilmann.

I’d like to keep both, personally, with Milledge splitting time with Shawn Green in a platoon and Endy Chavez getting significant at bats behind Moises Alou (Mets fans are going to like what this guy does with the bat; he is one of the bets hitters of the last decade and if he can stay in the lineup for 120 games he is going to be better protection for David Wright than Cliff Floyd was).

Prediction: Glavine will be the opening day pitcher, followed by Zito and Hernandez. Maine and Perez will follow and Heilmann will have to get used to the bullpen again — though I’d like to see them use Maine as trade bait (sell high, as they say) and find themselves a younger rightfielder. (Maybe Green can go in some sort of package, with the Mets picking up a chunck of his salary).

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The Blog of South Brunswick