Sayreville & Piscataway NJ Real Estate Blog

With the coming of the new year, let’s take a look at the November election results and see who’s in the political driver’s seat in Mercer County.

Mercer County:

            County Executive: Brian Hughes (D)
            Freeholder: Anthony Carabelli (D)
            Freeholder: Keith Hamilton (D)

East Windsor:

  Mayor: Janice Mironov
  Deputy Mayor: Walter Daniels
  Councilwoman: Marsha Weinstein
  Councilman: Marc Lippman

---

Ewing:

No positions were up for election this year.

---

Hamilton:

  Mayor: John Bencivengo
  Councilwomman: Kelly Yaede
  Councilman: Kevin Meara

---

Hightstown:

Only two council seats were up for grabs.
  Councilman: Walter Sikorski (D)
  Councilman: M. Jeffery Bond (D)

---

Hopewell Borough:

  Mayor: Paul Anzano (D)
  Councilman: David Mackie (D)
  Councilman: Timothy Sean Jackson (D)

---

Hopewell Township:

  Commiteeman: Michael Markulec (R)
  Committeeman: James Burd (R)

---

Lawrence:

  Mayor: Robert Bostock (R)
  Councilwoman: Pamela Mount (D)
  Councilman: Michael Powers (D)

---

Pennington:

  Mayor: Anthony Persichilli (D)
  Councilman: Robert DiFalco (D)
  Councilman: Thomas Ogren (D)
  Councilman: Catherine Chandler (D)

---

Princeton Borough:

  Mayor: Mildred Trotman
  Councilman: Roger Martindell (D)
  Councilman: Andrew Koontz (D)

---

Princeton Township:

  Mayor: Phyllis Marchand (D)
  Committeeman: Arden “Lance” Liverman (D)

---

Trenton:

No positions were up for election this year.

---

Washington Township:

No positions were up for election this year, but the township officially changed its name to Robbinsville effective January 1, 2008.

---

West Windsor:

No positions were up for election this year.

The effect of rising foreclosure on the economy could “break the backbone of our economy” said Douglas Palmer mayor of Trenton and president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. The Mayors group meeting in Detroit hope to create policy recommendations to help address the housing crisis. The report, released yesterday, estimates U. S. Gross Domestic Product growth in 2008 will be 1.9 percent — one percentage point lower. The GDP is the value of goods and services produced and is considered the best barometer of the country’s economic fitness. The report, created by Global Insights, further suggests that homeowners, banks, holders of mortgage backed securities, and loan servicers work together tot ease the economic effects.  

Comedian, actress,  author and TV personality Whoopi Goldberg will bring her unique brand of humor to the Count Basie Theater tonight in Red Bank. Show starts at 8PM and tickets prices are $58-$175.

She blew the whistle on the administrative practices that allowed children in Trenton to get a “diploma” without getting an “education”. Beverly Jones, a social studies teacher in the Trenton School System, was approved for retirement in a unanimous decision by the Trenton School Board on November 13th. Ms Jones has been teaching for 32 years and when she realized children were being allowed to repeat classes they had already passed and given credit for classes that did not exist she did the right thing and told school district administrator’s then the school board. When the practices continued she notified the state.

Months after the state investigation found Ms Jones’ complaint valid, she was brought up on tenure charges of insubordination and misconduct. The school board dropped the charges where later dropped in exchange for Ms Jones’ involuntary retirement.  

Read the article here.

Tomorrow when you are sitting down to your Thanksgiving Day meal, consider the turkey. At one point this tasty main dish neared extinction in the wild because of human activity. Now again because of human activity the bird is making a come back. Granted, it was the Eastern turkey that was having difficulty but wild game is still something we enjoy seeing and in the case of the turkey hearing as well.

The turkey was Benjamin Franklin’s choice as the national bird since it played a big part in our history but the Congress had other ideas. The Congress chose the bald eagle though some thought is a cowardly creature because sparrow-size birds could drive it away in a fight. The turkey according to Franklin,

“For the truth the Turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America. He is besides, though a little vain and silly, a bird of courage, and would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his farm yard with a red coat on.”

So while you and your family are enjoying a day of Thanksgiving so perhaps in the wild there is a turkey out there that would encourage us all to “Eat Ham”.

Happy Thanksgiving folks!

On November 20, 1789 New Jersey was the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights — the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. The Bill of Rights provides for matters such as free speech, religion, press and assembly; right to bear arms; the notion of probable cause as the guideline for obtaining a warrant to search a home; speedy and public trials; and the empowerment of each state with power not specifically given to the federal government. The Bill of Rights not only shapes and preserves individual freedoms it also provides for the autonomy of the individual states.

What is not commonly known is that the amendments were originally twelve in September 1789, but by the time the ratification process was completed there were only ten.