Start wherever you want with this, because this is ongoing, what's going on as we speak.

Well, good Lord, where do I begin? Well, the latest is I just got, just as I was on hold to chat with you here, I got a message saying that the governor is going to be holding a press conference at 2.45, so about an hour from now.

Yes, she'll speak.

She got roasted quite a bit after.

You know, the whole timing of this has been completely ridiculous, right? I mean, go back to the beginning.

Now we learn that the first report started coming in and concerns in March.

In May, there was a paper trail about this formal investigation.

And one of your colleagues tweeted that it appears they would rather silence the women or at least one woman as the campaign was ongoing.

Okay.

I guess she'll speak.

Uh, she got roasted quite a bit after...

You know, the whole timing of this has been completely ridiculous, right? I mean, go back to the beginning.

Now we learn that the first report started coming in and concerns in March.

Um, in May, there was a, a, you know, a paper trail about this formal investigation.

We find out the taxpayer's been billed about 50 grand for this so far at $450 an hour.

... they've admitted the 400, tens of thousands probably, if not God knows how many, uh, involved in this.

And yet Mississippi has created a miracle here just getting kids to read.

You are absolutely right.

I mean, if you need the case study to see the difference between spending money on education and actually improving education, you just got to compare the two.

When you look, you know, all the states, we take the NAEP test, right? That is the nation's report card, where all the kids across the country are taking the same test, let's say in fourth and eighth grade, right? So I'll give you an example.

In 2013, Mississippi ranked 49th in the United States in fourth grade reading, and by 2024, they ranked ninth.

They're number one in the nation for gains in reading and math since 2013.

You know, and when you talk about New Jersey, this is the real kicker.

Is it or is that going to be a battle? And are there other areas? Is there anywhere you think there could be an upset?

Jersey spends two and a half times maybe what Mississippi does, and yet Mississippi has created a miracle here just getting kids to read.

You are absolutely right.

I mean, if you need the case study to see the difference between spending money on education and actually improving education, you just gotta compare the two.

When you look, well, you know, all the states, we, we take the NAEP test, right? That is the Nat- Nation's report card, where all the kids across the country are taking the same test, let's say in fourth and eighth grade, right? So I'll give you an example.

In 2013, Mississippi ranked 49th in the United States in fourth-grade reading, and by 2024, they ranked ninth.

They're number one in the nation for gains in reading and math since 2013.

You know, and, and when you talk about New Jersey, this is the real kicker.

Is it, or is that gonna be a battle, and, and are there other areas, um, is there anywhere you think there could be an upset?

Good morning

...

this, this all started, you know, Friday night with about 20 minutes of absolutely unexpected explosive storm activity.

You know, we had wind gusts up to 70 miles an hour.

There were, you know, mult- multiple footage of tornadoes that looked, uh, clouds that looked like tornadoes.

Uh, the damage is absolutely staggering.

It's devastating.

Shouldn't there be a num- a state of emergency called in the State of New Jersey, Assemblywoman, first and foremost?

But what has to happen to break through, Dawn?

You know what? It's really there's a learning curve here because I feel like we're in uncharted territory with the bizarre election results that came in.

I know that we have a serious push.

We were really looking to the federal government to help clean up some of these voter rolls here.

you know, to give us a hand here to make sure we're really playing on a level field because that remains to be seen.

But, you know, what I do find is the louder we become and the more aggressive that we become, sometimes, case in point, I was very, very vocal about the Highlands not getting a penny last Through this whole thing, Highlands, up by where I live, we provide the clean drinking water for six million New Jerseyans, including the city of Newark.

And a lot of schools in the Highlands were just gutted.

Where does that stand? It's been quiet, it seems to me, for a while.

And what was that supplemental $358.8 million spending bill? A lot of that is pork, and we should be, as taxpayers, outraged by it, yes?

Absolutely, because, I mean, you know, I was calling the governor, Governor Pork, no more, because that was her, you know, big thing.

No, we're not having any more pork, no more pork.

Well, you know, she happily signed it with a big smile when all was said and done.

It was actually about $611 million in pork, but the supplemental bill was done kind of like it was a smoke and mirrors thing to look like.

See, I didn't add all this on.

This is just a supplement bill.

Any hope? I don't know how to rescue it because apparently what's happening in Trenton is happening around the rest of the country, Assemblywoman.

Are they tinkering with that? Is it making any sense to you? Oh, yeah.

You know, it doesn't make sense.

And you know what it is? You know, one of my Achilles heels, I've got to tell you, is I've got a real soft spot for the senior citizens.

I used to work for Meals on Wheels, Catholic Family and Community Services.

And let me tell you, what we do to seniors here is abhorrent.

Speaker Craig Coughlin's big hallmark, because we never fix anything at the root where we throw a Band-Aid, but his Band-Aid, which was the best we had at the time, was something called Stand J, which offered property tax relief.

You know, up to $6,500 back for seniors who are paying exorbitant property tax bills and are forced to leave.

Yes.

You mentioned that you guys are suffering there in New Jersey from something called riot fatigue, and I'm curious what, what you meant by that.

that.Well, we are quite sick, Todd, of hearing over and over that this is a mostly peaceful protest.

Uh, you know, we have a governor with blinders on who, I don't know if she's deluded herself, but she must think the rest of us are deluded.

We are sick to death of seeing law enforcement officers getting attacked, bit, their lives threatened.

You know, meanwhile, I, I heard your correspondent just prior to me discuss that, you know, the crowd doesn't quite know what to do at this point.

But I guarantee you that when night comes, they're gonna figure out what to do, and they're going to attempt again a repeat of night after night after night of flat-out rioting.

Uh, there's nothing peaceful about the set of protesters that come in the evening.

And I am wondering, how much blame do the Democrats bear, their behavior in all of this, those leaders?