Hello Bettermost Friends!
Yup, my state is the center of "bridge gate" and it couldn't have happened to a
nicer (
) governor.
For those of you who have heard something about this but are not sure of what the story is, here is a brief explanation.
Our Governor (Chris Christie) is a Republican, and has the image/reputation of a bully. He's a big, loud, pushy man who has shouted at people and been rude. Some like this quality, others don't. He has voted against funding women's health clinics and vetoed gay marriage in NJ, but his held in high regard by most for his response to Hurricane Sandy
In November our state had the elections, and he was running against Barbara Buono. When he was campaigning, a number of Democrats supported him (out of fear) but some didn't. One democrat who refused to endorse him was the mayor of a city called Fort Lee, which is by the George Washington Bridge.
In September before the election, three lanes of the bridge were shut down for "construction and repairs" and this caused massive traffic jams in the streets of the town of Fort Lee. Traffic was snarled for hours, people were late for work, school busses were deadlocked and kids missed classes. Emergency vehicles (police cars, ambulances) were stuck in traffic and unable to respond to calls. This went on for four days.
After 4 days the lanes were reopened, but Democrats began to investigate the event.
Emails have recently surfaced that show the construction was not needed on the bridge, and it was faked and all the lanes were closed with the intent of 'punishing' the mayor of Fort Lee for not endorsing Chris Christie by completely clogging their streets with traffic.
So far, Christie has said that he knew nothing about the plans, that it was carried out by his 'underlings', but they were pretty high up in his group of supporters, and so far about 3 people have resigned from jobs due to this.
It's also been reported that a 95 year old woman was unconscious at her home, and her family called 911 for help. They waited over an hour for an ambulance to arrive, it couldn't get through the traffic to their house. by the time she got to the hospital, she was dead.