New Jersey Power-Broker Loses Pension.

"Errors" will be inserted on a regular basis in this essay, spacing may be affected, letters may be deleted. Any comments posted to these essays have not been approved by me.

"Convicted New Jersey Power Broker Loses Pension," in The New York Times, July 19, 2007, at p. B2.
"Lacey Township: Small Radiation Release at Plant," in The New York Times, July 19, 2007, at p. B6."

The former State Senate president, John A. Lynch, Jr., who pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges last year and is serving a 39-month sentence, was stripped of his legislative pension on Wednesday because of illegal conduct while in office."

"... Mr. Lynch's $1,865 monthly pension was suspended last November after he pleaded guilty to federal fraud and tax-evasion charges. The decision on Wednesday prohibits him from receiving future benefits based on his years of service in the Senate."

Service? Oh, you mean "service" to himself!

"... Once among the most powerful people in New Jersey politics, Mr. Lynch, a Democrat, told a federal judge he accepted a bribe of more than $25,000 from a mining company in exchange for using his influence on the company's behalf.

You can't swing the proverbial dead cat in Trenton without hitting one or two politicians who have done the same, or worse, including a judge or justice who also engages in the occasional "dipping" spree. My fondest hope is that the feds are on to them -- and I suspect that they are. Stick your head into the New Jersey Legislature's next session and shout: "F.B.I.!" Everyone will run for cover.

You -- or a member of your family in New Jersey -- may someday have cancer or you may contract a similar disease. (Fortunately, I have no such diseases.) If you do -- and I hope that you won't! -- then you can probably thank the failure of state regulators to supervise nuclear and other industries in the "Garden State," which is better known in medical circles as "cancer alley." New Jersey has been described as "America's radioactive toilet." Legally, this is an accurate and fair description.

"A day after an electrical problem caused the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant to shut down, its operators" -- good word! -- "said yesterday that a small amount of radiation had been released into the atmosphere during the shut down. [How small?] About one curie of Titrium, a weak radioisotrope, was released, said Neal Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He said that was half the dose a person would receive in a year from a smoke detector. ..."

Yes, but people will be getting that full dose not in a year, but in seconds. "There's nothing to worry about," plant officials and their lawyers said with a chuckle -- as they scurried into their vehicles and drove for the hills -- even as workers at the plant and their families began to take on a weird, greenish color.

"New Jersey -- What's that smell?!"