Since I am currently living on the Big Island of Hawaii, in Hilo about a mile from bay front, I thought I would put my time to use (while hunkered down) blogging about a first hand account with Hurricane's Iselle and Julio. I plan to do this blog like an updating journal entry. A 4.4 magnitude earthquake struck near Los Angeles early Monday morning, waking a lot of people up earlier than usual but not causing any immediate reports of major damages or injuries. While millions of Californians are breathing a collective sigh of relief, it is only a matter of time before the next big earthquake hits California. The Australian Open for tennis has happened every year since it's inception back in 1905. And it's just like any other sporting event in the sense that headlines typically read very generic: So and so wins big. Upset in the making. Underdog prevails! The streak continues.. and so on and so forth. But this year, that's not really where the story was at.
Laws that have broad bi-partisan support come few and far between, but the GI Bill that was passed in 1944 is one of those few bills that will bring together both the most ardently conservative and die hard liberal because it was a law designed to thank those who made the ultimate sacrifice in serving our country. Folklore has said the moon cycles have a large role in humans and animals sleep methods and quality. With the next full moon approaching July 12th, I wonder how many people this will actually affect. There have been some very interesting studies done before, during, and just after full moon cycles that show this folklore to actually hold great weight. If you have been keeping up with the news aggregate catch-all site 'Google News' lately, you will notice an uptick in what's "becoming the norm" as President Obama recently put it: school shootings. I know I've noticed it. And it got me wondering just how many school shootings have taken place lately? Feels more and more like an everyday, or at least every week occurrence lately.
The Administration of Chris Christie has been accused of withholding millions of Sandy emergency relief funds for a New Jersey town that refused to approve a massive redevelopment plan that the governor favored. The mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey, claimed that Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno and Richard Constable, who is Governor Christie’s community affairs commissioner spoke on behalf of the Governor in making the demand. While the two officials in question have denied the allegations, recently released documents seem to say otherwise. Dawn Zimmer, who is the mayor, also said that she will be happy to speak under oath and take a lie detector in order to prove her claims. Governor Chris Christie is under a Federal investigation regarding possible misuse of federal funds given to New Jersey after the state was ravaged by super storm Sandy back in 2012. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has concluded after an initial audit that a full investigation is warranted into whether Christie used his position to choose a politically friendly public relations company to air television advertisements encouraging people to visit New Jersey over another company that bid over two million less. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul engaged in a back and forth recently that could foretell a nasty intraparty fight for the heart and soul of the Republican Party. Governor Christie has called out Senator Paul for his "dangerous" libertarianism and for his hypocrisy of being a Senator from a state that receives far more money from the Government than it puts in. Senator Paul has accused the Governor of surrounding himself with a "cloak of 9/11 victims" and of having a "gimme, gimme, gimme" attitude after the devastating Superstorm Sandy. During the Hurricane Sandy clean up process, Governor Christie awarded a no bid, multi-million dollar contract to a company that contributed more than $50,000 to a PAC that invested heavily in electing Christie to the Governor's mansion. In total, at least four companies that donated heavily to New Jersey Republicans received state contracts to help in the clean up process. Congress was set to approve a $60 billion relief fund bill for the New York and New Jersey victims of Hurricane Sandy on January 1st, 2013. Both House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor had publicly agreed that quick action must be taken for relief for this natural disaster. But, when it came time to pass the pill, Boehner pulled the legislation last minute. It is reported he did so to pay back Republicans, namely Eric Cantor, for voting against him in the Fiscal Cliff deal just days before. Gov. Chris Christie and Peter King, among many others, were completely outraged when this happened. And, after two full days of heated debate and backlash against his actions, Boehner re-entered the deal and put it back into motion.
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