When Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey struck down the Access to the Region's Core (ARC) plan two years ago, he gained enormous praise from the Right for standing up to the Obama administration's demands. However, according to a report this morning from the New York Times, the decision to cut off Jersey's cash flow for ARC was statistically misguided by Christie.

Anyone who has traveled between Penn Station and New Jersey doesn't need to be told that the trains are at capacity. Limited to two century-old tunnels beneath the Hudson, Amtrak and Jersey trains share a stuffy route that expects to grow in traffic by 38 percent come 2030. The pressured rail is a major connection to the larger Amtrak/Jersey web of trains, which means the smallest delay anywhere can set off a chain reaction of trouble for many other cars. But these details never unsettled the Governor.

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​Mayor Mike Bloomberg was on the defense this morning against criticisms thrown at him this week that the New York Police Department's surveillance of Muslims in New Jersey is arrogant and paranoid.

Since the Associated Press came out with reports that the NYPD spied on Muslim student groups at campuses throughout the Northeast, the mayor has continued to defend his position. He told reporters last month that the surveillance is necessary to fight terrorism and protect freedoms (like free press, guys!). Last week, after reports came out that the NYPD has also been conducting surveillance on mosques and Muslim-owned restaurants in Long Island and Newark, Bloomberg said that the city is consistently following leads and not targeting individuals based on religion or race.

In addition to pressure from universities and advocacy groups, the mayor has faced significant backlash from Newark Mayor Cory Booker and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

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​Mayor Bloomberg has slammed the results of an audit that called the Port Authority "a challenged and dysfunctional organization" with "ineffective cost controls," saying that the cost of the World Trade Center memorial is worth it for the sake of New York's reputation.

"Can you imagine? If America couldn't have come up with a memorial by the 10th anniversary, I would suggest that the press would have had a field day. It would have been an embarrassment around the world," Bloomberg told DNAinfo.

Bloomberg cited several factors which have contributed to the high cost of building the World Trade Center memorial, including bureaucratic struggles over permits and land ownership, the architectural problems caused by subway lines that run near the site, and the loaded political significance of the project.

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​President Obama is expected to announce today that he will allow ten states to be exempted from the strict test-based measures of the No Child Left Behind Act. The states are Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee -- and our beloved neighbor New Jersey. New Jersey schools have been struggling to address the achievement gap between their poorer students and minority groups and more well-off students.

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​Ah, New Jersey. The land where fake orange tans and affable, clueless Republicans come together to make magic. New Yorkers should consider themselves lucky to live so close to New Jersey, particularly right now.

New Jersey governor Chris Christie, one-time potential Republican presidential candidate, continues to think it prudent to make public comments on a variety of topics, despite consistently sticking his foot in his mouth at every turn. Suffice it to say, there's hardly anyone in the state of New Jersey who isn't mad at Christie right now.

Civil rights groups and are mad at him for making an asinine, historically inaccurate comment about the civil rights movement on the eve of Black History Month. Christie said that civil rights activists "would have been happy to have a referendum on civil rights rather than fighting and dying in the streets of the South."

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​Frequently bombastic New Jersey governor Chris Christie said on Fox News today that it would be "presumptuous" of him to say no to running on Mitt Romney's ticket for vice president if the opportunity was offered to him. Christie endorsed Romney last month. Early in the interview, Politico reports, Christie said that the idea of his running alongside Romney hadn't been brought up. But if it did:

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New Jersey governor Chris Christie was mic-checked by Occupy protesters yesterday at a Des Moines, Iowa. Christie seems relatively unfazed as the protesters chant "Put people first" (we think that's what they're saying, at least).

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​Fox News boss Roger Ailes loves Chris Christie and has made no secret of his desire for the New Jersey governor to run for president in 2012. Christie maintains that he's 100% not running this time around, though that hasn't stopped a relationship from blooming between the powerful Republican pair, with Ailes working in some capacity as a "confidential adviser" to Christie, which according to the governor's office, protects correspondence between the two. Gawker reporter John Cook filed an Open Records Act request -- not unlike the ones we've followed in the cases of Osama Bin Laden and Sarah Palin -- "seeking any correspondence between the two men, as well as any records of meetings or phone calls with Ailes from Christie's schedule or call logs." As these things tend to go, the reporter was denied. More details inside a Friday evening edition of Press Clips, our daily media column, also including more dirty on AOL and the week's whiniest lawsuit.

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​The presidential candidate of Fox News' dreams, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, used a $12.5 million state police helicopter to rush to his son's high school baseball game last week, giving political opponents and pain-in-the-ass bloggers something to bitch about. "The governor's use of the helicopter was completely appropriate and within allowable guidelines," said Christie's spokesperson in response. "He uses the helicopter very sparingly." Plus, it "didn't cost taxpayers anything extra because it's counted as training time for the pilots," Fox reported. And yet! Today, Christie says he'll pony up the cash; the Republican governor is repaying the state $2,151.50 for the two trips last week. Christie, according to his spokesperson, "understands the sensitivity about this kind of thing and believes he owes it to the public to ensure that this is not a distraction." But how much to erase a dick pic and every subsequent interview? [LAT]

Christopher Costa for Patch

​The governor of New Jersey is a busy man, but made time to see his son play baseball yesterday; he arrived in a State Police helicopter. Chris Christie had a hectic marathon of important meetings and New Jersey allows the use of the choppers, which cost at least $1,830 per hour, on "heavily scheduled days" for speed and safety. "The governor's use of the helicopter was completely appropriate and within allowable guidelines," said Christie's spokesperson. "He uses the helicopter very sparingly."

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