The NJ Turnpike Authority presented a plan that would rails tolls 50% next year--and then another 50% in 2012 and 11% in 2023, according to WCBS 2. Given the state's budget troubles, Governor Jon Corzine has been trying to increase the fare to more than $3 in 2014 and to $5.80 in a decade--to much public outcry--but this plan would see a $3 toll in 2023. Right now, the toll is $1.20 (average), and under......

Carla Katz was suspended as the head of the largest local of the Communications Workers of America. The CWA's national executive board believes there's, per the AP, "financial malpractice and suppression of dissent among the local’s 16,000 members, 10,000 of whom are state workers" (see the claims here). Katz denies the charges and says they are "appalling." Her past relationship with NJ Governor Jon Corzine has been scrutinized (Corzine gave her a $6 million settlement......

NJ Governor Jon Corzine spoke out against NYC's congestion pricing plan, citing the Port Authority's proposed $1 billion worth of involvement to sweeten the deal. The City Council approved the plan on Monday night, and now the State Legislature will decide. If passed without the Port Authority's involvement (and $1 billion), NJ drivers would face an additional $3-4 toll when crossing over into Manhattan below 60th Street. Corzine issued a statement: "I am dismayed at......

NJ Governor Jon Corzine, who was critically injured after not wearing a seat belt when his state vehicle crashed, endorsed a proposal requiring all passengers wear seat belts in vehicles on NJ roads. He also supported recommendations for stricter restrictions for drivers under age 20, even admitting his three children had been in accidents as teen drivers. Corzine had been riding in his SUV's front passenger seat last year when he was ejected, breaking a......

Tomorrow, the city and other organizations will mark the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Here's the official city commemoration:7AM: Families start to arrive at Zuccotti Park, where the ceremony will take place. 8:40AM: Mayor Bloomberg begins the program, which includes first responders reading victims' names and readings from NY Governor Spitzer, former NY Governor Pataki, NJ Governor Corzine and former NYC mayor Giuliani. Bagpipers and drummers lead......

Grieving families buried the three victims of last weekend's execution-style murders in Newark. Authorities also named a fourth suspect in the crimes: Rodolfo Godinez, a 24-year-old who has a record of robbery, assault, and weapons arrests. Separate funerals were held for 20-year-old Iofemi Hightower, 20-year-old Dashon Harvey, and 18-year-old Terrance Aerial. Newark Mayor Cory Booker attended all funerals, and when he spoke at Aerial's funeral, the NY Times noted that his words were a......

There's no session scheduled for the State Assembly Monday in Albany, but state senate leader Joseph Bruno took a break from barking back and forth with Governor Spitzer to draft a bill in an effort to lay claim to a half-billion dollars in federal funds targeted at improving transit. Senate Majority leader Bruno had the bill drafted and urged fellow lawmakers to convene in an effort to get the state's hands on $500 million in......

NJ Governor Jon Corzine told reporters that he will not use his e-mail anymore as NJ Republicans have filed a lawsuit demanding that Corzine's e-mails with ex-girlfriend and NJ union leader Carla Katz be made public. Corzine said, "We’ll go back to the 1920s, and have direct conversations with people." We'll guess his staff is also getting him books on Morse Code, smoke signals, and sending messages in bottles. Now that Corzine's getting healthy after......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a found grenade(!) at Sedgwick Ave. and Depot Pl. in the Bronx, a child abduction on 8th Ave. and 150th St. in Manhattan, and a person struck by a train on 103rd St. and Roosevelt Ave. in Queens. A New Jersey State Police report concluded that the unauthorized use of flashing emergency lights by his driver didn't cause Governor Corzine's near-fatal crash, but it did contribute significantly to the......

The NY Times' Lawrence Altman, a reporter who is also a doctor, writes about NJ Governor Corzine's medical treatment after his April 12 car accident. For any medical procedure (or procedural) buffs, it's an illuminating look at how medical professionals react to treating high-profile medical figures all while just trying to do the best job they can. For instance, Cooper University Hospital's chief trauma orthopedist was watching the Phillies-Mets game at his home in Philadelphia......

NJ Governor Jon Corzine left Cooper University Hospital this afternoon, after spending over two weeks recovering from his April 12 car accident. Pushed out in a wheelchair by his children Jeff and Jennifer, the governor spoke to the crowd outside:Via the Star-Ledger: "I understand I set a very poor example for a lot of young people, a lot of people in general. I hope the state will forgive me." Via the NY Times: “I set......

Governor Jon Corzine expects to be discharged from the hospital next week. Corzine has been at Cooper University Hospital where he has been recuperating after severe injuries after the SUV transporting him (where he sat seat-belt-less in the front passenger seat) crashed on the Garden State Parkway. NJ Acting Governor Richard Codey and State Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts visited Corzine at the hospital, and Roberts said, " “I think that he views this, very literally,......

NJ Governor Corzine showed the Associated Press that he's doing pretty well, sitting up (in red track pants, which is rather Fidel-ish) and reading his many get well cards. These are the first photographs of Corzine since he was in a car accident that left him critically injured and with 15 broken bones. Earlier this week, Corzine was still stuck in bed, but now he's able to leave bed and sit up. The cards......

Tody on the Gothamist NewsMap: a carjacking in Staten Island; a missing patient at Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn; and a fatal accident in Queens. The Staten Island carjacking, which included a police chase, injured three people, including a child and a police officer. One suspect is in custody and police are on scene looking for a possible 2nd suspect. The fatal accident in Queens was a small school bus striking a 23 year-old woman......

NJ Governor Jon Corzine has been moved from intensive care as his condition improved to stable. The governor continues in his second week of recovery after a car crash on the Garden State Parkway which revealed his SUV (a state trooper was driving) was going 91 MPH while Corzine was not wearing a seat belt in the front passenger seat. However, the governor's chief of staff Tom Shea said that Corzine will not be getting......

With the NJ State Police confirming that NJ Governor Corzine's SUV was going 91 MPH on the Garden State Parkway during a crash that left a seat-beltless Corzine critically injured, it was only natural for reporters to ask Mayor Bloomberg his thoughts. And the NY Times' Diane Cardwell says that his "nanny tendencies...were on full display" First the Mayor revealed that his car has signs reminding people to buckle up. (What, no audio recording of......

How much of an emergency is getting back to the Governor's mansion for a meeting between Don Imus and the Rutgers women's basketball team? Because the NJ State Police confirmed that Governor Corzine's SUV, which crashed last Thursday along the Garden State Parkway, was going 91 MPH, well over the 65 MPH speed limit. Further, NJ State Police Superintendent Joseph Fuentes said that the speed of the state trooper-driven SUV probably contributed to the accident,......

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Score: Gecko, 0, and People Tired of Ads, 1. Last week, it was announced that the Port Authority and Geico had worked out a $3.2 million deal for the insurance company to place signage and marketing goods at the George Washington Bridge toll plaza as well as at other Port Authority facilities and on other Port Authority collateral. Think costumed geckos at the bus station or Geico logos on Port Authority mailers. But now......

-- Phillip McKelvey of Riverside Drive was arrested on suspicion of committing a series of rapes in Harlem-- the victims were homeless women. -- Mary Kate Olsen doesn't wash her hands after using the bathroom. Isn't she supposed to be the good one? -- The first lawsuit in the Bartha explosion case has been filed. -- Here's a big pile of kittens. Not cute enough? Check out Pepper! -- Bruno Kirby, the famous character......

- DC is so weird - they're all about naming their developments after NYC neighborhoods - Disgraced Enron CEO Kenneth Lay dies in Aspen, leaving the Wikipedia writers to guess as to how he died - Where is the Hallo Berlin street food cart? - Would you really want to live in a rental building over the Lincoln Tunnel? - The city has struck a tentative deal wtih school bus drivers - guess the......

Or at least that's what World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein promised yesterday, now that he and the Port Authority have agreed on terms that divvy up control of Ground Zero's various components. "I have instructed our construction team to mobilize into the site tomorrow so that we can begin construction of the Freedom Tower immediately," he told the media. The Port Authority says that the eastern section of the WTC site will be......

The government powers that be when it comes to the World Trade Center site - NY Governor Pataki, NJ Governor Corzine and NYC Mayor Bloomberg - have worked out a plan that was presented to WTC developer Larry Silverstein in hopes of getting the Ground Zero rebuilding off the ground. The deal is for Silverstein to build Freedom Tower (but the Port Authority would control it) as well as giving him control of three additional......

- Turns out Mayor Bloomberg and NJ Governor Corzine teamed up to convince Pataki to rework any sort of Ground Zero proposal to Larry Silverstein. And re: the NY Times' mention of past NY-NJ spats, we wish we remembered how Mayor Koch "once symbolically boarded up the entrance to the Holland Tunnel over the loss of jobs to New Jersey." - Some City Council members want Con Ed to pay fines when people get shocked......

While the goverment tries to dole out punishment to someone who may or may not have had anything to do with the September 11 attacks in Virginia, it turns out at that demolitions workers found bone fragments on the roof of 130 Liberty Street - aka the Deutsche Bank building. According to the medical examiner's office, there were 74 human remains samples, and the ME's office spokeswoman Ellen Borakove told the NY Times, "This is......

While Governor Pataki might not care about the state of NYC's public schools - or NYC, he sure does like its hospitals: He headed to NY Presbyterian Hospital yesterday for a second surgery to clear an intestinal blockage that was preventing him from, um, being regular. This sent the local news media looking for a crash course in GI medicine, in search of new ways to obliquely refer to bowel movements but still make sure......