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NATIONAL NEWS


The Sun/Sunday, January 19, 2014


Mayor: Christie aides tied Sandy funds to project


 TRENTON, N.J. (AP)
-The Christie adminis-
tration withheld millions
of dollars in Superstorm
Sandy recovery grants
from a New Jersey city
because its mayor refused
to sign off on a politically
connected commercial
development, the mayor
said Saturday.
 Hoboken Mayor Dawn
Zimmer alleged that Gov.
Chris Christie's lieutenant
governor and a top
community development
official told her recovery
funds would flow to her
city if she allowed the
project to move forward.
 Zimmer said Lt. Gov.
Kim Guadagno pulled
her aside at an event in
May and told her Sandy
aid was tied to the project
- a proposal from the
New York City-based
Rockefeller Group aimed
at prime real estate in the
densely populated city
across the river from New
York City.
 "I was directly told by
the lieutenant governor -
she made it very clear -
that the Rockefeller project
needed to move forward
or they wouldn't be able
to help me," Zimmer told
The Associated Press.
 "There is no way I
could ethically do what
the governor, through the
lieutenant governor, is
asking me to do," she said.
 Christie's office denied
Zimmer's claims, calling
her statements politically
motivated. Spokesman


Colin Reed said the
administration has
been helping Hoboken
secure assistance since
Sandy struck." Christie
himself was raising
money Saturday for fellow
Republicans in Florida.
The fundraisers were
closed to reporters.
 A state website that
tracks the distribution
of Sandy aid shows that
Hoboken received a
$200,000 post-storm
planning grant in October
out of a $1.8 billion pot
of money controlled by
the state. Hoboken also
received a $142,000 state
energy resilience grant.
 Besides state money,
Hoboken has received
$70 million in recovery
funds distributed by
the federal government,
according to the Christie
administration. Zimmer
said she has applied for
$100 million to implement
a comprehensive plan to
help insulate her city from
future floods.
 Christie is already em-
broiled in another scandal
involving traffic jams
apparently manufactured
to settle a political score.
At a recent news confer-
ence to discuss the lane
closures on the approach
to the George Washington
Bridge, Christie brushed
aside questions about his
aggressive governing style.
"I am who I am," said
Christie, "I am not a bully."
 But Zimmer said
Guadagno and


9!" -M


 AP PHOTO
In this Saturday, Aug. 8,2009, file photograph, Hoboken Mayor,
Dawn Zimmer speaks to the media as she stands near the Hudson
River in Hoboken, NJ. Zimmer, mayor of a New Jersey city that
sustained severe flooding from Hurricane Sandy claims the
Christie administration withheld millions of dollars in recovery
grants because she refused to sign off on a politically connected
development. MSNBC first reported her comments Saturday.


Community Affairs
Commissioner Richard
Constable, a member of
Christie's cabinet, both
delivered messages about
Sandy aid in no uncertain
terms.
 Zimmer, who first spoke
with MSNBC on Saturday
told the cable network
that at another event in


May Constable said "the
money would start flowing
to you" if she backed the
project.
 The Rockefeller Group
did not immediately
return a phone message
left by The Associated
Press. In a statement to
MSNBC, a spokesman said
it had no knowledge of


any information related to
Zimmer's claims.
 Zimmer, a Democrat,
said she is willing to take
a lie detector test or testify
under oath about the
conversations.
 Christie's office called
Zimmer's claims a political
move.
 "Gov. Christie and his
entire administration have
been helping Hoboken get
the help they need after
Sandy," Reed said. "It's very
clear partisan politics are
at play here as Democratic
mayors with a political axe
to grind come out of the
woodwork and try to get
their faces on television."
 The Sandy aid matter is
the second time in recent
weeks Christie's adminis-
tration has been accused
of exacting retribution for
political reasons.
 Christie's chief of staff,
chief counsel, chief politi-
cal strategist and two-time
campaign manager have
all been subpoenaed for
documents related to
the September closing
of approach lanes near
the George Washington
Bridge, which led to traffic
chaos in the town of Fort
Lee across the river from
New York City.
 The agency that runs
the bridge, the Port
Authority of New York and
New Jersey, is chaired by
David Samson, whose
law firm, Wolff & Samson,
represented the developer
in the Hoboken matter,
according to Zimmer. A


phone message left at
the firm's office was not
returned Saturday.
 Twenty new subpoenas
issued in the bridge
closure matter on Friday
reach deep into the
Christie administration,
the port authority, and
his re-election campaign,
but spare the governor
himself.
 The U.S. Attorney's
Office is reviewing the lane
closings and a legislative
panel is investigating who
authorized the apparent
plot and why.
 Zimmer said she
is telling her story in
hopes that Hoboken gets
much-needed assistance
in the second wave of
relief funding yet to be ap-
proved by the federal gov-
ernment for distribution
by the state. That money,
a total of $1.4 billion to
be distributed through
the state Community
Development Block Grant
program, is awaiting
federal approval. The
focus will be on improving
infrastructure, Community
Affairs spokeswoman Lisa
Ryan said.
 Interviewed by The
Associated Press last
month, Zimmer voiced
concerns about the lack
of storm aid to her town,
but expressed hope
that the administration
would come through in
the next round. She did
not mention the real
estate development in the
interview with the AP


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 SARASOTA
South Tamiami Trail
 & Beneva Road
 941-924-4693


 6 0%88 aikiouJPi.
; 6882 Va__ Yld tirgh Jaqhj ty 25.2014


 Mexicans who go

 home have less

interest in returning

 to US, report says


 WASHINGTON
(Cronkite News Service)
- More than half of
Mexican immigrants who
moved back home said
in a recent survey that
they have no intention
of returning to the U.S.,
even though many left
family here and most had
positive experiences.
 Those were among
the findings of a recent
report that said the cycle
of Mexican-U.S. immigra-
tion has reached the "end
of an era."
 "We recognize a new
era of return migration
where record numbers of
Mexicans are returning
home and fewer are com-
ing to the United States,"
said Aracely Garcia-
Granados, executive
director of the nonprofit
Mexicans and Americans
Thinking Together.
 "This is the other half
of the story to be told,"
she said.
 Granados spoke at this
week's release of a report,
by MATT and Southern
Methodist University, that
was based on interviews
with 600 people in the
Mexican state of Jalisco
who had lived in the
U.S. The interviews were
done in mid-2013 with
Mexicans who had been
in the U.S. at least a year
before returning.
 Just under two-thirds
of them said they came
to the U.S. for work. But
while 77 percent said they
came here illegally, about
89 percent said they re-
turned home voluntarily.
Only 11 percent claimed
to have been deported.
 About 37 percent said
they went home for fam-
ily reasons and another
29.1 percent said it was
because they were home-
sick. Only 4.3 percent said
the fear of being deported
drove them to cross back
over the border.
 However they got back
home, 53 percent said
they had no plans to


ever return to the U.S.
This despite the fact that
54 percent said they have
family in this country and
88 claimed they had a
positive experience living
here.
 The findings are the
latest twist in an immi-
gration cycle that saw
as many as 12.6 million
Mexicans in the U.S.
before the recession hit in
2007, Granados said.
 She said that between
2005 and 2010, close to
1.4 million Mexicans
moved back home from
the U.S.
 "The No. 1 reason is
the economic recession,"
said Daniel E. Martinez,
an assistant professor
at George Washington
University's sociology
department. "Some
people have also argued
it's because of increased
border enforcement."
 In 2007, deportation
of illegal immigrants was
close to 290,000, accord-
ing to U.S. Immigration
and Customs
Enforcement, and that
number jumped by
almost 80,000 in the year
after the recession hit. By
2012, deportations hit a
high of almost 410,000.
 Martinez a prin-
cipal investigator on a
University of Arizona
report last year on
immigration and family
separation said stricter
immigration laws might
also be keeping more
immigrants from trying to
cross the border, legally
or otherwise.
 "They might say, 'In
the past, I use to migrate
a couple times a year,
but now I only have one
chance to get out there,'"
he said.
 Granados hopes the re-
port will help MATT and
the Jalisco government
improve programs aimed
at helping Mexicans get
jobs and education, and
integrate back into life in
Mexico.


 NORTH PORT
U.S. 41 Tamiami Trail & S. Salford Blvd.
Located in The Cocoplum Village Shops
 941-426-8400


L 463291